Validus AKA Rick Jones
by Screaming Dean
Summary: Rick Jones has always wanted to be a superhero. Now he's the muscular, super powered, six foot four inch, 300 pd Validus! In ch. 13, Rick and Kara stroll through Hollywood amidst chaos caused by Doctor Doom.
1. Enter the Legion of Super Heroes

Validus

!SOUND EFFECTS! _"THOUGHTS"_

Chapter One

Samuel Sterns, otherwise known as the Leader was in his orbiting space station near the moon contemplating his next move.

_"My copy of the Watcher's Ultimate Machine is finished. I managed to use a piece of the original that was broken to recreate a new one but despite my brilliance I won't be able to recreate another. This will be the last one. Even though it's not a perfect copy, Nothing must happen to it!"_

_"My Ultimate Machine has allowed me to view other dimensions and universes, hooking it up to my large view screen. What goes on in the different universes is interesting but what interests me the most are the Legion of Super Heroes. They are a motley crew with each member being able to do one at least one thing better than anyone else. _

_I've been thinking of ways to increase my power. So I'll use my machine to bring them here. Some of them are extremely powerful; I'll leave the most powerful ones there. There is one powerful creature I'll bring in; his name is Validus. Though he is powerful, he's not very bright. I'll put him in a physical and, more importantly, a mental stasis. I'll drain him of his power while I drain the others. When I'm finished I'll become the most powerful man in the universe! _

_But there's one problem. The Ultimate Machine, of which I made a copy, is faulty, not the equal of the original. Therefore, I'll need a guinea pig for this experiment to make sure there are no problems. I once drained Rick Jones of his gamma power when he had turned into a Hulk himself. After I've brought most of the Legion and Validus here, I'll bring Rick Jones here too, making him a conduit. Once I've transferred theLegionaires' attributes, powers and skills into Rick and ignited his resurgent gamma powers, I'll drain Rick Jones of his power. The last time I drained him I made sure there was some small amounts of gamma energy left in him just for a time like this." _

XXX

A week later, the Leader saw his chance._ "Now, let's see how the Legion is doing. Hmmm. They've just defeated the Fatal Five and the Legion of Super Villains. They barely won that battle so they're exhausted. This is the best time to bring them to me. Now!" _After the Leader figured out the coordinates he pressed several buttons and brought most of the exhausted Legion and Validus to his orbiting base with a stasis field designed for each of them.

"Greetings, Legion of Super Heroes. You won't have to wait too much longer, but I have one more guest to bring to my home. Once he's here, we'll begin."

The Leader then transported his mentally controlled warrior robots into Rick and his wife, Marla's apartment while the two were asleep in bed. After transporting them and his robots back into his orbiting space station, the Leader had put his two "guests" into stasis energy fields as well. Neither of them could move but the stasis field Rick was in was specially designed for what the Leader had in mind. As soon as he felt everything was in readiness, he pressed a button which woke Rick up with a jolt of electricity.

"Welcome, Rick Jones," a green skinned man with an exceptionally large head said as he regarded his "guest."

"Leader? How can it be? You're dead!"

"The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated. You once thought the Hulk was dead even though he wasn't. You're ability to judge whether or not someone's dead leaves a lot to be desired."

"Why did you bring my wife and me here? We were doing just fine until your robot goons showed up!" Rick shouted.

"You and your wife weren't doing so well. From the looks of things, you were on your way to divorce. But that won't be a problem after I'm through you."

"What are you talking about?" Rick asked as he tried to break free of the stasis field he was in.

"You remember how I drained your gamma energy from you in order to increase my own power some time ago?"

"Yeah? What about that?"

"Well, I made sure you still had some residual gamma energy in you. But you'll need help in order to bring it to the surface. Therefore, I'm going to drain power from another source, transfer it into you, then I'll drain that power from you, taking it into myself. My power will increase 1,000 fold!" the Leader said with a magnificent flare. "Ah, but how rude of me. Let me introduce you to my other guests, the Legion of Super Heroes!"

"What?" Rick said out loud. "The Legion of Super Heroes are comic book characters! You've flipped out, man!"

"Comic books? It figures a fool like you would be into something so ridiculous. Anyway, these are real live heroes from another universe. My genius detected their universe and their presence, so I created a plan to get most of them here. Take a look at them; I have them in stasis fields as well; therefore, they are as helpless as you are. The green skinned one is especially intelligent, almost as smart as me. But they're not the only ones I've brought here. Take a look yonder."

When Rick looked up in the direction the Leader motioned he saw a huge creature the size of Galactus! He was wearing purple, seemed to have no eyes and had his brain exposed in a see through glass dome. "What is that thing?" Rick asked after recognizing most of the Legion.

"He's called Validus. I'm also going to mostly drain his power along with the others. After I'm done juicing you up, so to speak, I'll drain the power from you into me," the Leader matter of factually.

"What do you need me to be a middle man for?" Rick asked.

"There are certain risks involved. Even though I've created a copy of the Watcher's Ultimate Machine, allowing me to see into the universe of these people and bring them here in the first place, there's a google**(1) **to one chance that my machine might not work exactly right. So just in case, you'll be the guinea pig. There are a lot of super heroes here to test on you so this will take a long time."

"Are you planning on draining these Legion of Super Heroes look a likes? Their costumes look really authentic, but you're not gonna get much out of them."

"They are the real thing, stripling! I viewed them from their home base on earth while they fought Validus, his friends in the Fatal Five and the Legion of Super Villains. The battle was hard on them and they barely won it. Validus' other friends had been put away in their version of prison. But before anything else could happen, I transported some of the Legion and Validus here for my experiment. There were others there too but what I have here will suffice."

"Are you planning on transferring all their powers into me? If they are as powerful as I've read that will kill me!"

"Possibly, but that's the chance I'll have to take. But that chance is minimal since I am using my copy of the Watcher's Ultimate Machine. Now, shall we begin? I'm curious as to what will happen when I drain... Let's start out with Karate Kid, Kid Quantum, Saturn Girl, Dawnstar, Alchemist, Brainiac 5, and Gates. Keep in mind their skills and the abilities of their equipment will be drained from them too. Shall we begin?" the Leader said as he telepathically ordered one of his robots pull a lever.

"Oh, yes. There's one more thing. You need to be angry for this to work; your rage will ignite your resurgent gamma powers. Therefore," the Leader said as he pressed a button that woke up Rick's wife, Marlo with a jolt.

"Where am I?" the beautiful, young woman said to no one in particular.

"Hello, farewell, good bye!" the Leader exclaimed as he pressed another button, causing a massive amount of electricity to appear in the glass dome in which Marlo was imprisoned at the time.

"Aiiiieeee!" Marlo screamed as the potent electricity coursed through her! The power of the electricity was such that Marlo's body was reduced to a skeleton and dust moments after she died. All of this happened in Rick's full view.

"You monster! Why did you have to do that? I'll kill you if it's the last thing I do!" Rick screamed with grief.

"That's what I want to hear, good old rage and anger. Now, Validus' power will start flowing into you along with the aforementioned Legionnaires. Yes, that's it."

_"We have to do something!" _Saturn Girl telepathically communicated to the Legionnaires who were bound up with her, having kept them all in mental contact the whole time.

_"Can you use your mental powers to attack this Leader, Saturn Girl?" _Brainiac Five asked as he felt some of his intelligence being drained.

_"It's not worth the risk. I can tell this guy's mental defenses are strong. If I attack him and fail, our chances of escape will be gone. As it is, he has no idea that I have mental powers."_

_"What other chance do we have?" _Karate Kid asked.

_"There is a chance if Rick over there is willing to cooperate. The saying, 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend,' will need to hold true. Can you communicate with him, Saturn Girl?" _Brainiac Five asked as he saw Rick begin to turn green with rage and pain.

_"I can do it. What's your plan?" _the teenage girl asked.

_"If you press your powers to the limit, putting our heads together, Saturn Girl, more than you're doing right now, making us of one mind, those of us who are being drained can give this Rick some of our powers and skills without permanently losing them. We can also mentally train him in the use of our powers by sending our collective subconsciousness into him while Gates sends him into another dimension where time will go at a much slower pace, giving him time to acclimate to the new powers he's getting. That's where you'll come in, Kid Quantum. It's important Rick has enough time to learn how to use all the powers he gets from us, so he'll know what to do. By the time he gets back no time should have passed from our point of view. Understand me, Jazmin?"_

_"I understand," _Kid Quantum complied.

_"But what good will that do? This Leader will just drain our given powers and skills from this guy into himself," _Saturn Girl answered.

_"It's possible if we give some of our powers and skills in a specific manner we can cause a feedback that will break him free. I will especially need your help with this, Livewire. With all of your help, I can figure out a way that Rick will be immune from power drains and any kind of transformations. He will probably drain some of the powers of our equipment as well, but the problem is, will he fight for us and help us afterwards?" _Brainiac Five communicated to the others.

_"From what I can tell, this guy has always wanted to be a super hero even though he sees us as only mere comic book characters he's read about since he was a kid," _the team's telepath communicated.

_"He'll fight for us! I've foreseen it! But we have to act quickly!"_ Dreamgirl communicated anxiously, having seen the future.

_"That's it, then! Let's put our heads together and help out our erstwhile ally!" _Brainiac Five ordered.

After a few seconds, Saturn girl communicated with Rick while he was in great pain absorbing a great deal of Validus and some of the Legionnaires' powers. _"Hey, Rick. It's me, Saturn Girl. Yes, we're real. We can help each other."_

_"What? The pain is so great. How can you help me?" _Rick answered in his mind.

_"Here, let me show you."_ Saturn Girl re-laid Brainiac Five's plan to Rick who agreed to go along with them. As Rick continued to absorb the power he was getting, there was an explosion. !BOOM!

"What the? What was that?" the Leader exclaimed as Rick Jones vanished.

!BOOM! After another explosion commenced, and the smoke had cleared, Rick Jones stepped forward from the rubble all together different! He now stood at 6 feet 6 inches tall weighing 300 pounds of much defined muscle with each of his arms measuring 26 inches around, his body being perfectly symmetrical. Even though he still was a little recognizable, he looked like a champion bodybuilder except more impressive and imposing. His uniform was composed of dark/green wrist bracelets, boots, and trousers, leaving his muscularly well formed, massive chest, abdominal six pack, arms, and shoulders exposed for all to see. In addition to that, he had dark/green eyes along with similarly colored lengthy mane-like hair that went a quarter way down his powerfully built back. He was a drop dead gorgeous man who was barrel chested with deep pectorals and beautiful green skin that was more like She Hulk's than the Hulk's. In fact, he was actually better looking than the jade giantess, becoming an inhumanly beautiful and powerful man. Thus Rick Jones had become had become bigger, better, badder!

_"God, he's gorgeous!" _Dreamgirl said mentally as the other female Legionnaires sighed in agreement.

"So you're free; no matter. I'll still drain you," the Leader said as he pressed a button. The draining beam surrounded Rick but had no effect on him. "What?"

"It's not going to work, Leader!" Rick said as he quickly flew towards the gamma powered super villain, the Leader barely putting up a force field before the newly empowered super hero could hit him. But despite that, the large headed villain still felt the pain of the countless blows which knocked him back several feet.

"It's over, Leader! Did you have to kill my wife? Blast you!" Rick said as he struck his wife's murderer several more times as he seemed to slip into unconsciousness despite his force field.

_"Rick!"_ Saturn Girl telepathically called out to him. _"It's time you break us free from our restraints!"_

"All right guys," the emerald warrior answered the Legion's telepath. "Let's see about getting you free and back to your own universe." He then walked over to the instruments that were connected to the Legion's restraints.

_"Are you sure you know what you're doing, Rick?" _Saturn Girl telepathically said to newly powered warrior.

"I got this. I've been here before. After having some of Brainiac Five's intelligence put into me, I know to press this button."

As soon the Legionnaires became free, Brainiac Five walked quickly towards the control panel. "Good work, Rick. You're a good student, but I better do the rest of this myself."

After the Leader had vanished, everybody heard his voice. "Do you think you've beaten me so easily? My robots will destroy you!" Doors all over the place opened up revealing ten foot, giant-sized shiny silver, metallic robots and six foot man sized, pink, foam rubber robots. There were dozens of them which immediately surrounded the group of heroes and attacked!

"I'll hold them off! You guys get out of here as soon as you can!" Rick said as he moved into the robots destroying as many as he could.

"Let me give you a hand, Rick. I need to let off some steam," Karate Kid said as he moved in on the large silver robots, attacking and shattering them with his powerful martial arts. "Gates and Kid Quantum said, 'they sent you into a dimension where you spent time learning how to use the powers and skills you got from us.' I know you got some of my martial arts combat skills. But it looks like you've learned in less than a second a tenth of what it took me a life time to learn."

!SMASH! "Not quite. I was in that pocket dimension your friends sent me into for what felt like a year. Since you guys sent your subconscious minds into me, it was as if you guys were there teaching me the whole time. Even though my martial arts skills and abilities aren't on par with yours, my fighting ability is at a super human level," Rick explained as he struck a particularly powerful robot, turning it into scrap metal.

"That's great, Rick." !SMASH! "You're doing a good job of fighting, and you're right about one thing."

"What's that?" !POW!

"You have less martial arts skills than I have but your overall combat skills are impressive. You used that year of practicing everything I thought you to good use," Karate Kid replied as he shattered another robot. !CRACK!

"Save some for me, guys! Livewire said as he blasted another robot.

"There's plenty for everyone, Garth. Just keep at those mechanical robots. I'm paying more attention to the rubber like robots here who might be more resistant to your electrical attacks!" Inferno said as he flamed several other robots.

"Rubber or metal, it doesn't matter to me," the speedster known as Xs said she used her powers to vibrate through several robots shattering them.

"Roaaarrr!" they heard as Rick and the Legion finished off the last of the robots.

"It's Validus! He's awake!" Triad's three selves said all at once.

"He's half as tall as he was before, having been drained more than any of us. Thus, Validus's abilities have been permanently weakened. That explains Rick's massive gain in strength and power. Rick's about as strong as Valor or Thunder at this point," Dreamgirl said as she admired Rick's inhumanly handsome, green features.

"Well, then. I guess it's up to me to take this guy out," the emerald gladiator said as he walked forward.

"That might not be necessary, Rick," Umbra said as she covered the purple clothed giant's head with darkness obscuring his vision. "Validus isn't too effective without the Emerald Empress or the other members of the Fatal Five telling him what to do. Now he can't even see."

As Validus groped around in the darkness, everyone stayed out of his way. "I'm done. This machine is brilliant," Brainiac Five said as he finished up. "All right. Rick, we have to go. We have an open window to which to return and I don't know how long that will last. We'll take Validus along with us, but I'm afraid you'll have to deal with the Leader on your own."

"Don't worry about it. I can deal with him. I've gotten enough of your powers and skills including a great deal of Validus' power. You guys can go home now. And thanks for your help; I'll handle things from here," Rick answered.

"That's the spirit! You'll make a great superhero, Rick!" Dreamgirl exclaimed as she ran over to him and kissed him passionately, rubbing up against him, making the newly made super hero blush. "That was for luck, handsome. Bye bye!"

"I've set instruments to show us when we get back to our own universe. When we're back safe and sound I'll give you a thumbs up," Brainiac Five said.

"All right. It's been great working with you guys," Rick said.

"All right. Here we go." !ZAP! With that the Legion was immediately transported to their universe in their own headquarters along with the giant sized Validus.

Rick saw Brainiac Five give a thumbs up with the rest of the Legion behind him waving as Rick viewed him from the Leader's monitor screen. Then Rick heard him say, "Rick, This is Brainiac Five. You need to destroy that machine. It's too dangerous for a mad man like the Leader to have. As I said before, I've given you the thumbs up. We will probably never see each other again so good bye and good luck!"

"Gotcha, dude!" Rick said as he proceeded to destroy the machine.

"What are you doing, you brute? Noooo!" the Leader called out as he showed up with a large gun pointed in Rick's direction.

"I've destroyed your machine, Leader. So you won't get another unless you go all the way back to the Watcher's base on the moon again."

"Why you muscle headed oaf! I'll kill you for this!" The Leader then blasted him with his huge gun.

"Aargh!" Rick moaned as the laser energy engulfed him.

"It's bad enough that you freed my prisoners. But you had to take power which was rightfully mine."

"Rightfully yours? You drained me before in order to increase your power, and then you kidnapped and killed my wife in order to enrage me so as to get more power, now you have the gall to make yourself out to be the victim? You can just stuff it!"

"You are beginning to anger me, you green giant!" the Leader screamed in a rage as he tried to blast Rick again but missed.

"My name isn't Green Giant; I'm calling myself Validus after the creature whose power I ended up getting. Now I believe I owe you for killing my wife," Validus said as he power leaped towards the Leader like a shot, intending to do him some serious bodily harm.

"Fool!" the Leader screamed.

However, before Validus could get to him, the Leader pressed a button, creating a portal that Validus leaped right through. "I hope you enjoy being lost in space, Validus," the Leader said with a wicked smile on his face.

In the next moment Rick Jones found himself in an unfamiliar area of the universe. "Where am I?" Validus said as he looked around in the galaxy in which he was at the moment for a familiar planet.

XXX

"What happened to you guys and who were you talking to?" Valor asked, surprised to see the other Legionnaires appearing out of nowhere inside their headquarters.

"It's a long story, Valor, but before we can talk about that we need to get Validus into a cell at Galtron-Tarkos," Saturn Girl said, happy to be home.

"All right. Come on, Ultra Boy, Thunder, and Monstress. We have a job to do," Valor ordered.

"He's half the size he was before!" Thunder exclaimed, regarding the scaled down Validus.

"I'm sure we'll get an explanation on that later, but let's do what we have to do right now," Valor said as the four powerful Legionnaires got to work.

XXX

**(1)**Google is a number that has one hundred zeros after the one.

AUTHOR'S NOTES: But let me know what you think of it. Here are Validus'(Rick Jones) stats. These stats are based on Classic Marvel the RPG. If you want to see how Validus stacks up against other super heroes and villains just go to _**Classic Marvel. **_You can see how the system works from there.

VALIDUS

FIGHTING: MONSTROUS (75) This means super human fighting ability that's beyond humanity.

AGILITY: AMAZING (30) This level of agility is at the human limit with the ability to do ability to do acrobatic feats and dodge multiple shots of gunfire with ease.

STRENGTH: UNEARTHLY (100) This level of strength is about 100 tons (Validus can actually lift a more than this normally and even more when he gets angry and in the course of a fight)

ENDURANCE: UNEARTHLY (100) This level of endurance means immeasurable and never tiring.

REASON: REMARKABLE (30) This level intelligence is one step below genius.

INTUITION: EXCELLENT (20) Fine attention to details

PSYCHE: AMAZING(50) This means an indomitable will power.

HEALTH: 325

KARMA: 100

RESOURCES: EXCELLENT

POPULARITY: 100

POWERS:

Invulnerability: Class 1000 resistance to Cold, Heat, Fire, Radiation, Disease, Corrosives, Toxins. His body's cells protect him internally as well so even his insides wouldn't be melted by drinking a vial of acid.

Power Defense: Class 1,000 immunity versus power drains and transformation attacks.

True Flight: Rick can fly at an Incredible (400 mph) speed.

Hyper Leaping: Class 5,000 This means the ability to leap pretty much where Rick can perceive.

True Invulnerability: Monstrous invulnerability versus all attacks except for attacks otherwise stated

Regeneration: Unearthly

Psi-Screen: Amazing

Iron Will: Amazing

Total Memory: Remarkable

Astral Detection: Unearthly

Mental Awareness: Validus is aware of mental powers used around him and who's using them.

Bump of Direction: Always knows his north, south, east, west, up or down, he has a built in compass so to speak.

Life Support: Even though Validus can breathe the thinnest of air without any difficulty he still needs at least a little bit of oxygen to breath. His endurance enables him to last for periods of time holding his breath, but in space he would eventually need a space suit. His greater constitution provides little need for sleep; however, eventually he will tire and require rest.

Movement Powers: Validus possesses quick reflexes along with the ability to run at speeds of 70 mph. He can also swim faster than most people.

Adrenaline Surge: The listed abilities and Health scores are for Validus under "normal" circumstances. Validus's Fighting and Strength may be raised 1CS to a maximum of Shift-Z to hit and damage. This only requires Validus to make a successful Psyche FEAT roll to increase these abilities to Shift-X. But to increase these abilities further he needs the psyche roll in addition to having been hurt that round or made angry or upset over something. If the opponent or opponents are defeated, Validus' abilities and Health scores return to normal in the next round. Validus's regeneration also increases 1CS to a maximum of Shift-Z each round until he is no longer taking damage.

EQUIPMENT: His clothes (wristbands, boots, belt, and pants) can't be taken from him and are considered a part of him and adapt to all of his abilities. He can make these appear or disappear at will. He can also make his outer clothes appear and disappear at will.

TALENTS: Acrobatics, Tumbling, Wrestling, Martial Arts: All, Architecture, Astronomy, Biology, Chemistry, Computers, First Aid, Tracking, Speed Reading, Lightning Calculator, Tracking, Astro-Navigation, Detective, Electronics, Engineering, Physics, Temporal Physics, Radiation, Repair/Tinker, Streetwise, Aeronautics, Robotics, Aerodynamics, Weapons Master, Pilot, Telecommunications, Music: Guitar and Singing

AUTHOR NOTES: Validus' vision and hearing are perfect but not super human.


	2. Fighting the Phantom Zone Villains

Validus

!SOUND EFFECTS! _"THOUGHTS"_

Chapter Two

In his orbital space station, the Leader was contemplating what he had done to his most recent escaped prisoner. _"Rick Jones or Validus as he now calls himself is gone forever and won't be able to come back. My Ultimate Machine, even though Rick had wrecked it, still had some power left in it. I took that power and used it to send Validus into another universe. I would have preferred to have exacted my own personal revenge on him but what I've done will have to suffice. Oh well, on to the next plan."_

XXX

_"Where am I?" _Validus thought to himself as flew around the solar system. _"Wait! There's the Earth right over there!"_

_"I wonder who that is," _a chalk skinned being with a goatee and a mustache riding a space worthy motorcycle thought as he noticed a green blur fly towards the Earth. _"That guy's tough; I can see that from here. I think I'll go follow him. I've been meaning to visit the Earth again anyway."_

In a few hours, Validus made his way through Earth's atmosphere, looking around and finding nothing familiar. He then took off for the eastern sea board of the United States planning to land in New York.

_"What was that? Did I just fly over the Daily Planet?" _Validus thought to himself as he flew past a city that had some familiar landmarks. Validus doubled back and took a good look at the huge globe over the tall 50 plus story building.

_"Am I in the D.C. universe?" _!CRASH! Val saw a man wearing a blue tunic with an S insignia on his chest and a red cape violently knocked into a 40 story building across the street. Then he saw what looked like a man in a suit of green armor that looked technologically superior to anything he'd seen Ironman wear fly towards the man red caped man who had just slammed into the building.

_"That looks like Luthor's armor. The face shield in the helmet is black so I can't see whose face is there. If memory serves me correctly, Luthor usually has someone do his dirty work for him. At least that's the post crisis Luthor. The pre-crisis Luthor was a mad scientist who hated Superman because he lost his hair while Superboy saved his life. The post crisis Luthor was a corrupt businessman who hated Superman due to jealousy. Maybe that's a remote control armor. I remember Ironman doing that at least once," _Val thought to himself as he flew towards the combatants.

"It's over, Superman," Luthor said as he showed the man of steel the green radioactive rock attached to his wrist. "My kryptonite has weakened you and my powerful armor is more than a match for you. As I told you before everyone will know I've killed you and no one will be able to prove it; I'll see to it."

"Wrong, Luthor!" Validus called out from the recently made hole in the building, floating in the air as he regarded the genius super villain. "It's over! I don't know what your game is, or if you're a wanted criminal or not but, I won't let you kill Superman!"

"Who the heck are you?" Luthor asked turning around.

"I'm a new superhero named Validus!" Rick announced puffing his chest out in a pose.

_"Who does this interloper think he is?" _the armored super villain thought to himself as he regarded the green skinned, green/black haired young man who hovered in the air. The long haired man wore black boots, gauntleted wristbands, and pants.

Are you trying to kill Superman because you lost your hair when he saved your life when you both were younger or because you're simply jealous of him being the most powerful man in Metropolis?"

"Saved my life? Lost my hair? What kind of ridiculous reason is that? This is all about revenge. I do what **I** want! Now get out of here, fool!"

"That answers my question," Val said as he flew towards the armored man with so much confidence that it seemed as if he was strutting towards him. "Is that kryptonite you're using on Superman? I'm afraid I'm going to have to take that."

Luthor turned towards Validus in a rage. "Any friend of Superman is my enemy! And no one takes anything from Lex Luthor! Now, die!" Luthor announced as he blasted Validus with a powerful death ray.

"Aaarrrgh! Now you've made me mad!" Validus exclaimed as he charged the armored super villain, flying into him at an even faster speed, hitting him several times.

_"This jade jackass is as strong as Superman and getting stronger. I don't know where he came from, but I can't afford to allow my means of destroying Superman to leave my grasp. I must needs depart," _Luthor thought as he created a cloud of blackness, barely making good his escape.

"Where did he go? I was just getting warmed up." !ZOOM!

"He's gone. Even I can't find him now with my supervision at this point. Did you say your name was Validus? I remember fighting someone with that name but he didn't look anything like you," Superman said as he stumbled, getting up.

"Gee, you got hurt pretty bad. Was it the kryptonite or the beating you got?"

"It was a little bit of both, I'm afraid. I'll be all right though. How did you know about kryptonite; most people don't even know about its existence."

"Uh, yeah. That's a long story. Have you ever heard of alternate universes?"

"I vaguely remember something happening a few years ago based on that. But there aren't supposed to be any alternate universes around anymore."

"Well, in the universe I came from you and some other super heroes in the Super Friends are comic book characters."

"Super Friends?"

"Um, the Justice League." Then Validus looked around to see if anybody was in ear shot of them. "Look, I know you're Clark Kent in your secret identity," Val said in a low voice. "I also know you're girlfriend's either Lois Lane or Lana Lang. You may have even been in love with a mermaid at one time."

A look of shock appeared on the man of steel's face as he regarded the emerald skinned, physically powerful newcomer. "So you say you're from another universe?" Superman asked, starting to believe the muscular man before him.

"Yeah. But there are a couple things I don't know for sure. Does Luthor hate you because he's jealous of your power? Is he a respected businessman or mad scientist."

"Yes to all of your questions; Lex Luthor was a respected businessman but he pushed things to far and now he's a wanted criminal. Did you actually think he hated me because I somehow made him lose his hair?" Superman asked incredulously.

"Hey, I don't know everything. That may have been another version of Lex Luthor. Now I know what's up. By the way, you haven't moved the earth, have you?"

Superman looked at Validus as if he were crazy for a moment. "No. I'm nowhere near that strong. Moving the earth? That's pretty much impossible."

"That pretty much answers all my questions. But do you know a Dr. Fate?"

"I know him, but not too well. Why would you want Dr. Fate?"

"He might be able to get me back into my own universe. Unless you know someone else who's capable of getting me back to where I'm supposed to be."

"How did you get here in the first place?"

"A super villain called the Leader sent me here after he killed my wife. I'll get him if it's the last thing I do!" Val said in a rage.

"Take it easy there, Validus. The best thing for us to do is to go to the Justice League Satellite. There might be someone there who can help you. And thanks for the save."

"All right! Let's go. We can go straight over there; I don't have to breath much and can survive in outer space," Val explained.

"Are you a Martian?"

"No. Have you ever heard of the Incredible Hulk?"

"Yes. There was a television show called the Incredible Hulk on when I was a kid. Come to think of it. Your green skin does resemble his." Then Superman clicked on his JLA communicator. "This is Superman; I'm coming along with a guest. Transport us in," the man of steel said in his JLA comm link. In an instant both he and Val were in the satellite.

The Leaguers who were there were the Flash, Green Lantern, Booster Gold, Blue Beetle, Wonder Woman, Supergirl and some others. Once introductions were made, Wonder Woman made a suggestion. "I'd feel better if I put my magic lasso around you while you explained who and what you are."

"That's right. Your magic lasso makes everyone tell the truth, doesn't it?" Validus asked remembering the Wonder Woman TV series.

"Yes. Will you go along with it?" the amazon asked.

"Sure, babe. No problem."

While being forced to tell the truth, Validus explained his story and how he got where he was now at the moment. After she was satisfied with Val's story, Wonder Woman released him of her lasso. "I don't know how to get you back, but you're welcome to stay here while we figure how to get you back home."

"Thanks, Wonder Woman. You're a lot hotter than Lynda Carter," Val answered.

"Uh, yes, thanks," the amazon answered, bewildered.

"I can't belief you're that loser, Rick Jones. I read Marvel Comics when I was a kid, so I know all about you," Blue Beetle said while Booster Gold nodded in agreement. "I guess you finally got to be a super hero. But the uniform you have now is so tacky!"

"All those years carrying the Hulk's water and being the Avengers mascot! What a joke! I always thought you were a schmuck, Rick," Booster Gold said with a laugh. "And your uniform leaves a lot to be desired."

"I like his uniform," Supergirl said with a smile in Rick's direction. "The look works for him."

"Thanks, Supergirl."

"You were a loser!" Booster Gold interjected sharply.

"Loser? I was never a loser. I wasn't a joke either. I even helped to save the world a few times!" Rick said in his own defense.

"La la la la la la losaa!" Booster and Beetle said in unison.

"You guys have a lot of nerve calling me a loser. You, Booster! You stole that suit and flight ring, time traveled to the present and called yourself a hero after you got thrown out of that football league for gambling! And you, Beetle! You gained over a hundred pounds! You were a fat tub of goo! Then the both of you guys ripped off Maxwell Lord in order to finance a get rich quick scheme that fell through. If anyone's is a loser, it's you two!"

"Listen, you hero wannabe! Both of us have had some hard times, but that doesn't make us losers!"

"Yeah!" Blue Beetle agreed with his friend.

"All right, guys. That's enough! Validus here saved my life, so let's not put him down," Superman ordered.

"Do you get stronger when you get angry like the Hulk does? I'm an artist so I've read a lot of comics as well," Kyle Rainer A.K.A. Green Lantern explained.

"I do get stronger, but it's unlikely I'd go berserk. You don't look anything like Hal Jordan or even Guy Gardner. Are you a new super hero, too?"

"I'm not all that new; I've been around for a while," Green Lantern answered proudly.

Then Supergirl got closer to Validus. "You're handsome. I like the Conan the Barbarian look; you look great, green skin and all."

"Thanks. You're really hot, too. I like the new look," Val said with a smile.

"New look? This is the only 'look' I've ever had," Supergirl said as she smiled up at him.

"Didn't you used to wear a blue blouse with an S symbol on your upper left breast with hot pants?"

"No." Supergirl looked at Validus strangely.

"I guess I got you confused with someone else," Val said a little embarrassed.

"I've put in a call to Dr. Fate of the JSA. He's not there, but he'll be informed of your problem when he gets there. Don't hold your breath because he keeps his own hours," Wonder Woman said as she came back from the communications room.

"If all else fails maybe we could use the cosmic treadmill," Flash opined.

"We'll make that a last resort. Let's exhaust all other options first," Superman said.

XXX

"You've done a good job helping me out even if your relationship with my cousin disturbs me a little. But right now you can help Supergirl and me patrol Metropolis," Superman said as the three flew over the city.

"All right. I'll just be as helpful as I can," Validus answered. _"I'll never get used to flying with Superman and Supergirl no matter how long I've been doing it."_

During this time, over a period of a couple of years, Validus aided Superman and the Justice League countless times, helping Superman lower the local crime rate by stopping street level crime and fighting super villains; he also helped him stop natural and unnatural disasters.

But there was someone who had not forgotten having been foiled by Validus. _"No one knows where Superman's rescuer came from, but that's not the point. It's difficult enough dealing with Superman and his super powered cousin. Now he has a jolly green giant backing him up. Therefore, I also need reinforcements." _

_"Superman doesn't know that I've used my genius to transport the three Kryptonians he thought he had killed from that pocket universe he visited in an inter-dimensional stasis field. Even though I've put in some safe guards like making sure they won't be able to attack me, I've been loath to let them out, but now things have gotten serious." _

_"Validus, as he likes to call himself, is not quite as strong as Superman but gets stronger as the fight goes on, even surpassing the Man of Steel's much vaunted strength. I'm going to have to let my uninvited guests out of the bag, so to speak," _Lex Luthor thought to himself as he sat in the chair of his current, hidden base of operations.

While still in his armor, Luthor pressed some buttons causing three figures to appear. "Well, greetings, General Zod, Non and Ursa. I have a proposition for you."

"Exactly what do you have in mind?" the general asked in an imperious tone.

"I want you to destroy someone."

"Who would that be?" the general asked.

"I want you to destroy Superman, his cousin and his new green skinned friend," Luthor answered with authority. "You will obey and do as I say!"

"As much as we would like to destroy Superman and any of his friends, you dare give me orders?" the general asked.

"Yes."

"Why do you say this, when you know I will kill you for it?" General Zod replied coldly.

"I have the means for your destruction," Luthor said as he showed them the glowing green rock.

"All right. All right. Put it away!" Zod said as he and his cohorts dropped to the ground, writhing in pain.

"Good. We understand each other. Keep in mind I'm a lot more powerful than I appear to be," Luthor said from within his armor.

"Where are Superman and his friends?" Non asked trying hard not to glare angrily at Luthor. Non was the largest of the three and the least intelligent.

"They're right there," Luthor said pointing at the monitor which showed the three of them mopping up after dealing with another uprising from Intergang.

"Is the blond haired girl Superman's cousin?" Ursa asked.

"Yes. I'll explain Superman's family tree later. Now get them!"

"Yes, of course," General Zod answered, feigning respect.

Luthor watched them as they left but thought to himself, _"I know for a fact that beings that powerful can't be controlled for long. So when I'm finished making the anti-matter gun I'm working on I'll vaporize all three of them along with Superman, his cousin and his jolly, green friend. While they're distracted fighting each other I'll go into the Fortress of Solitude and get what I need to finish my anti-matter gun. With Superman out of the way nothing will stop me from ruling the Earth!"_

XXX

"Do you plan on remaining that man's lackey, Zod?" Ursa asked in a seductive manner.

"No! Of course not. I'm nobody's lackey. I'll figure out some way of dealing with our 'host' soon enough. For the time being, we shall deal with our 'executioner' and his friends."

"That girl looks like she's related with the House of Zor-El. I've always hated the Zor-Els. They got my family in a lot of trouble when they ratted my father out. I'll take that little bitch out," Ursa said wickedly.

"I'll take on the big green guy. I've been itching for a fight," Non said cracking his knuckles with such speed he created the sound of machine gun fire.

"Very well. That leaves Superman for me. We must use the element of surprise on them. We'll hit them hard and fast, coordinating our attacks so that the three are hit at the same time. Once we've defeated them we'll snap their necks and kill them!" Zod said as he and his compatriots flew at super speed towards their unsuspecting targets.

XXX

"Good job, Validus, Supergirl. That went a lot smoother with the three of us than if I had to have dealt with these guys by myself," Superman said as the Intergang enforcers were being taken into custody, their armored suits and vehicles having been wrecked beyond repair. "You've really been a great help all these months, Validus."

"Thanks, Superman. I've really learned a lot. That fight took so long that its 8:30 p.m. now. There's just enough time for me to get back to the Justice League Satellite and watch the O.C. I'm happy to say I'll have a lot of experience when I get back. Wait until the Avengers find out I've worked with Superman! They won't believe..."

!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM! Val didn't have time to finish his sentence as three black clad figures attacked them knocking them each into different buildings.

"We don't have time for games. Finish your targets!" Zod called out as he flew into a dazed Superman, smashing into him further through a concrete steel wall.

Ursa grabbed Supergirl and spun her around at super speed finally throwing her several blocks into a car making factory. "Am I driving you insane, Supergirl?" Ursa said as she flew towards the building after Supergirl.

_"They look like those three phantom zone villains from the Superman II movie I saw years back. Uh, oh. Here comes Non again. He looks exactly like the Non from the movie, beard and all. I'm going to have to take this fight to a place where no innocents will get hurt. When I get pissed off, there's going to be a lot of destruction and carnage," _Val thought as he saw the larger sized Kryptonian come barreling towards him.

"Where did these three black clad people come from?" Katherine Sassoon asked out loud from the daily planet building as she and the others watched the fight from several monitors which were hooked up to satellites and helicopters filming the event.

"We don't know, but Luthor probably has something to do with it," another reporter said.

"The big guy's as strong as Superman!" another office worker said out loud.

"He's not even fighting Superman. He's fighting Superman's new friend, Validus.

"Are you sure that isn't the Martian Manhunter?"

"Yes, I'm sure! No one knows where Validus came from, but he's a friend of Superman. It's a good thing he's there too, or Superman and Supergirl would be outnumbered!"

"That Validus guy reminds me of that cartoon character the Hulk," another reporter said.

"He looks a lot better than Lou Ferrigno ever did. Validus can take me flying anytime," Kat Sassoon said with a wistful smile.

During the battle, Non grabbed hold of one of his opponent's arms and threw him a mile away into a large electrical Coco Cola sign. !CRASH! "Aargh! You really pissing me off, Non!" Val screamed through the pain of all the electricity coursing through him. Then he broke out of the sign.

"How did you know my name? Bah! It doesn't matter. As soon as we're rid of you three we'll take over the world." But as Non flew towards Validus at super human speed, Val struck him in the jaw with a right cross that sent the Kryptonian back end over end into a large office building, crashing through a large window, shattering it, and causing shards of glass to fly everywhere.

_"Rick's beginning to lose his temper; that might make him stronger, but he becomes a danger if he's not careful. We need to draw them away from the populace." _"Ungh!" Superman cried out in pain as Zod struck him with a rabbit punch.

'You really should be paying more attention to me instead of your green friend. Besides, I'm going to get my revenge for you having tried to kill me."

"How did you survive?" Superman asked as he blocked and counter attacked with a right hook that missed.

"Your enemy, Lex Luthor, 'rescued' us before we 'died'. He thinks he has us under his thumb but I'll soon show him who's boss. But right now, it's payback time!" Zod grunted as he put his hands together striking Superman down with an axe handle attack smashing the man of steel into the lower floors of the empty building they were in.

"You don't know who I am, do you, Supergirl?" Ursa asked as she attempted several rapid snap kicks Supergirl barely avoided.

"No, I don't," the maid of steel said as she kept backing up.

"Your father ratted out my father ruining my family name for years! I shall have my revenge on you today!"

"Really? Now I remember. Your father was a mad scientist and a criminal; his experiments were wrecking the planet. He may have been the one who put Krypton on the road to destruction in the first place!" Supergirl said as she used her super breath to blow Ursa back several feet.

"Smart ass bitch! You think I care about that mudball? I'll give you a beating you'll never forget!" Ursa said, running towards Supergirl at full speed, charging into her and knocking her out of the closed car factory she had previously slammed her into.

"Ungh! It's not over, yet!" Supergirl then dropped to the ground as Ursa flew over her attempting another attack. As soon as the black clad vixen was over her, Supergirl got up, striking her with a powerful uppercut, using the momentum of flying upward to add to the power of the punch.

In another area of the city, Validus smashed through the hole Non had just made, making an even bigger hole as he went through it. Everyone in the office building got out of the way of the combatants as papers and office equipment flew all over the place. !ZAP! "Aargh!" Val screamed as Non hit him with heat vision.

"Fool! I can do so many things you can't! Feel the heat!" Non yelled as Validus kept coming at him despite the pain or because of it! The emerald gladiators ran towards Non in a rage with such speed and power he slammed the Kryptonian through the other side of the building with papers bursting out of the even larger hole after the combatants had flown out of the building.

Eventually Validus and Non were in the air going at it toe to toe until Validus finally kneed his opponent in the groin, causing Non to lurch forward then Val kneed him in the chin snapping his head back. After that Val threw a straight forward power punch in Non's solar plexus sending him into a water tower. As Non came crashing into the water tower breaking it, gallons of water came pouring down on the people below who were watching the fight.

"The green guy's causing a whole lot of damage!" Kat Sassoon said out loud as she watched the fight.

"Isn't he working with Superman? He seems really angry," another reporter from the news room said.

"Wait! It's Supergirl and that short haired chick! The short haired lady just grabbed Supergirl. She's throwing her. Supergirl's headed this way! Look out!" someone screamed as Supergirl got closer and closer.

_"I have to put on the brakes before I smash into the Daily Planet," _the maid of steel thought to herself as she barely kept herself from slamming into the outer glass of the fiftieth floor.

"Whew!" The people inside breathed a sigh of relief as Supergirl stopped an inch from the glass.

"Wow! What a nice ass she has!" a smiling man said, admiring the view of Supergirl's upturned skirt.

"Look! That other chick is flying towards Supergirl. She's gonna ram her! Look out!" !CRASH! Everyone ran away from the incoming combatants and the shattered, flying glass which scattered all over the place! When the women came crashing in they both began to grapple with each other, tearing at each other and pulling hair."

"Wow! A cat fight!" a man exclaimed as the fight between the females caused their clothes to tear and rip.

"Heck. Both of them are hot!" another man said with a huge smile on his face as women's clothing became more and more torn.

"Is that all you can think about, you perv?" a rather plump women with glasses said in a frown as she glared at the man who had the huge smile on his face.

"You wish you had a body like either of them, and you know it!" the man with a huge smile replied.

"We need to get out of here. Who knows what else could happen!" Jimmy Olsen said out loud.

"You can go if you want, I'm not missing out on this," another man said, leering.

"I'll kill you, you self-righteous bitch!" Ursa cursed.

"Oh, screw off!" Supergirl said as she struck the criminal with a roundhouse kick that sent her out of the building with the maid of steel right on her heels.

"It's over Kal-El. I know you were weakened by your fight with those other people. Now I shall destroy you," Zod said as he grabbed Superman and threw him through a wall outside into the street where Superman barely avoided getting slammed into a truck.

_"We absolutely have to take this fight away from here," _the man of steel thought to himself as he looked around to see where and how Val and Kara were doing. Val! Kara! We're getting out of here! Follow me!" Superman said, using his super loud voice to make himself heard above the carnage.

As Superman flew away Supergirl followed quickly, but Validus hesitated, first spinning and throwing his large opponent to the end of the street and out of sight. _"Where are they going? Oh, that's right. Superman wants to take the fight away from the populace," _Validus thought as he flew after them.

"Where are they going?" Ursa asked no one in particular.

"That doesn't matter! Follow them!" Zod ordered.

Then Supergirl flew right beside Validus. "I know you can't fly as fast as Superman or me, so grab onto me and hold on tight."

"All right," Validus said in compliance.

"And don't use the time to feel me up or tickle me," Supergirl said with a giggle. However, if you're nice to me, I might let you feel me up and tickle me later," she said with a smile and a wink while Rick blushed.

XXX

_"I'm just about done. There, that's it. This Kryptonian technology is impressive. I'll have fun examining all the other devices and technology here later but right now, I'll need to prepare for the destruction of Superman. Wait! What's that noise? Someone is coming," _Lex Luthor thought to himself as he wielded his new weapon of destruction deep inside the Fortress of Solitude.

XXX

AUTHOR'S NOTES: Be here next time for the fortress fight! And be sure to send me some reviews for this!


	3. Validus the Return

Validus

!SOUND EFFECTS! _"THOUGHTS"_

Chapter Three

_"What's going on down there?" _a man with chalk white skin, bluish/black hair and a goatee thought to himself after having tracked the green skinned man with muscles to the cold arctic north along with Superman and Supergirl. The chalk faced man then took off after them on his flying motorcycle, shadowing them.

"Luthor! What are you doing here?" Superman exclaimed in surprise as he arrived at his Fortress of Solitude and saw the armored form of his arch enemy!

"Superman! You're too late! I already have my master weapon. It will send you to another universe. There's nothing you can do to stop me now," Lex Luthor said, holding what looked like a technologically superior laser gun that was the size of a bazooka canon.

"I don't know what you're planning, but it ends here and now!" Superman stated with authority as his cape billowed in the cold arctic air.

!SMASH! "Where are you, Kal-El? Come and face your destiny!" General Zod said in a commanding tone with Non and Ursa right behind him.

"You're just in time, Zod. Welcome to the party," Luthor said as he took out a remote control and pushed the button on it. Then the whole Fortress had a green twinge to it causing all the Kryptonians inside to fall to the floor in agony.

Moving as fast as he could, Validus took hold of a large, thick sheet of lead, throwing it over the prone forms Superman and Supergirl. That being done, Validus immediately slammed into Luthor, knocking him back a several feet. "Shut it off, Luthor! Shut it off!"

"Fool! I knew the kryptonite wouldn't affect you. But don't worry. I haven't forgotten about you," the mad scientist said with a smile. "This is for you!" Luthor then blasted Validus with a death ray which knocked the emerald warrior into an icy wall.

"Aargh!" Validus screamed as he walked towards Luthor, the dangerous beam still on him. "Out of respect for Superman, I'll try not to kill you, Luthor!"

"How green of you. I'm surprised my death ray is taking so long to kill you, but I have no intention of letting you anywhere near me."

Despite the pain of the laser ray, Validus power leaped into Lex Luthor at an uncanny speed, hitting the armored villain several times with rage enhanced strength and fighting ability. "It's over, Luthor! Turn it off. Turn it off!" Validus had struck Luthor so hard that mad scientist's armor had dents in it, causing him to actually feel some pain.

"Ungh!" Lex moaned as he got up. "I'll never turn off what I've done. You'll have to watch your friends die!"

"Wrong! I'll just take them out of here and return to kick your ass later!" Validus said as he moved towards Superman and Supergirl.

"That is all irrelevant. After I've defeated you, I'll simply finish them off in their weakened state. There is nothing you can do for the Man of Steel now!" Lex Luthor stated as his armor steadily repaired itself.

But as Val picked up both Kryptonian heroes and flew off, he heard what sounded like a motorcycle.

!SMASH! "Who started the party without inviting the main man?" Lobo called out as he crashed through the icy Fortress of Solitude with his cosmic motorcycle.

"Lobo?" Validus exclaimed. "I don't have time for you, dude. We're out of here!"

"No one puts off the main man!" Lobo said as he tried to ram Validus but missed. However, as Val was flying through the hole Lobo had just made, the motorcycling madman had already doubled back and rammed into Validus' back knocking him and his passengers further outside. Then Validus threw his passengers far away from the kryptonite infused fortress as he went crashing into the falling snow. Superman and Supergirl rolled through the snow on the ground still covered in the sheet, none the worse for wear.

"Well, it's looks like Superman is here too. I'll finish with him as soon as I kick your ass, you green pretty boy! Then I'll have a good time with that blond cutie over there!" Lobo called out as he attempted to ram into Validus again.

"Never! RROOARR!" Validus yelled as he grabbed and threw the flying motorcycle including its passenger a mile or so away.

"Validus!" Superman gasped. "Get a grip! You need to get the others out of there!"

"You mean the other Kryptonians? I'll try but Luthor isn't going to be so accommodating. Holy... Who knows what Luthor is doing in there? I'm on my way back in there!"

"I'll tell you what I'm doing. This inter-dimensional device will send the man of steel into another dimension leaving me to do what I want here in peace. Don't even be concerned about the three Kryptonians in there; they're pretty much dead. Superman and Supergirl would be dead too if you hadn't gotten them out of there so fast. The kryptonite energy that resonated from his fortress was a lot more powerful than usual as the energy came from my master weapon here, powered by my chunk of kryptonite," the armored villain stated with confidence from the entrance of the fortress.

"I'll get them as far away from you as necessary!" Validus snapped back.

"You should be more concerned with yourself than with them. I will simply send you into another dimension first. Then I'll be rid of your precious Superman, " Luthor said holding the device pointing it in Validus' direction.

"I won't let you do that, Luthor! I won't let Superman down!"

"What is this, hero worship? You are a fool! Fine then. If you want to be banished first, so be it!"

However, as Validus rushed the scientific genius, Lobo had returned from where he had been thrown on his bike and slammed Validus from behind knocking him clumsily into Luthor. "Don't turn your back on the main man!"

"Fool! Look out!" Luthor screamed as he pressed a button barely activating his device right before Lobo and Validus slammed into it. But before they had vanished, they smashed into the device, destroying it! "You idiots! NOOO!"

With the destruction of the device the kryptonite energy vanished. "Bring them back, Luthor," Superman said as he and Supergirl landed right in front of him.

"Don't you understand, you super idiot? Both of them are gone for good! There's no bringing them back! Blast it! I was so close to your destruction! But there's a silver lining in this cloud."

"What's that?"

"Even though that fool was able to save you from me, you couldn't save him despite all of your vaunted power. Come to think of it, he saved you from me twice and you failed him, both of you! So much for the mighty Man and Maid of Steel! Ha ha ha ha!"

"You &# filthy bastard!" Supergirl said teary eyed.

"What is it, girlie? Did you have a crush on him or something? You should have hit and quit it while you had the chance. It doesn't matter now anyway. I'll easily destroy both of you in your weakened state. "

"I'll kill you!" Supergirl screamed, balling her fists in a rage.

"I've had enough out of you, you foul mouthed bitch!" But as Luthor prepared to blast the supposedly weakened maid of steel into oblivion he found his armor hadn't recovered as much as he thought. "What the?"

!CRACK! Supergirl smashed into the master criminal pummeling him into the ground with a rage. "You had to ruin it, didn't you? I finally found someone I could love, and you had to send him away! &# you!"

"You think you can beat me, little girl? Don't make me laugh. I'll... Aargh! How is it you have so much power?" Luthor exclaimed in surprise as Supergirl beat the living daylights out of him, damaging the armor and even damaging Luthor himself.

"Validus wasn't the idiot you took him for. He covered us with a blanket that had lead fillings in it!" Supergirl answered as she kept bringing on the pain.

"That kryptonite was powerful. Even a mere blanket with lead in it wouldn't have stopped the kryptonite from affecting you! Aargh!"

"It still affected us but not so much. Validus quickly took us out of there sending us far away giving us plenty of time to recover!" !POW!SMASH!

"Superman! My armor has weakened. Call off this bitch before she kills me!" Luthor cried out in pain.

"It's all right, Kara. It's over. We'll see what we can do to help Rick. Killing Luthor won't bring him back."

"You're right, Kal," the girl said, seemingly mollified. "But there's one more thing." Then she turned to Luthor. "Don't call me a bitch!"

!CRUNCH! "Ooooh!" Luthor screamed as the Maid of Steel kneed the bald villain in the groin and knocking him to the ground, prompting him to crouch forward, clutching himself.

"That felt good," Supergirl said as Superman gave her an admonishing look. "What?"

"You needn't worry about Validus, Supergirl," a voice called out.

"Dr. Fate!" Superman exclaimed. "I guess you got our message finally."

"Yes. I would have replied to you sooner but I had some other business I had to take care of. Validus has been transported to his home universe along with Lobo, so you'll never see either of them again."

"You mean we've stuck Rick's universe with Lobo?" Supergirl said out loud. "Maybe I should be sent there to help him."

"No! You won't be able to go there, not from here. Lobo really wasn't of this universe anyhow. And Validus is well capable of handling him. Get on with your life, child," Dr. Fate said before vanishing.

"Well. My armor has recovered. So we'll meet again, Superman. And you won't have that steroid pumped jerk to save you from me next time. That goes for you too, you bitch! I won't forget what you've done!" Supergirl moved at super speed to strike him down but only punched air as the armored villain vanished.

XXX

In the Marvel Universe, Validus and Lobo appeared right above the Avengers Mansion which Rick recognized. "I'm back!"

"What are ya babbling about, ya bastiche?" Lobo screamed as he leaped off his bike and nailed his opponent with a surprisingly fast paced roundhouse kick that sent Validus crashing into the roof of the mansion.

"Oof! Man this building is hard!" Then Val looked up and saw Lobo about to ram him with his motorcycle. "I won't let you damage the Avengers Mansion!" Rick said as he caught the motorcycle in midair, throwing it and Lobo far away and super leaping after it.

"Who are you?" a red headed young woman asked, flying up to Validus, easily keeping up with him.

"Oh, Firestar! It's a long story. I'll tell all of the Avengers about it later. But right now I need to nab that guy and kick his ass. We don't want that guy running around causing trouble."

"Why should we want **you** flying around making trouble?" Firestar asked.

"You don't recognize me, do you, Firestar? My name is Validus. Uh oh, here he comes. Keep out of his way, will you? This fight's going to be brutal!"

"I know I'm on a new world, but I don't care! I'm gonna frag your green ass all over the place! Get out of the way, bitch!" Lobo called out as he flew his flying motorcycle so fast and so close to Firestar she was blown back end over end by the momentum and exhaust of Lobo's powerful vehicle. Then Lobo charged into Validus knocking him back several hundred feet, slamming him across the street into a 40 story office building.

"Excuse me?" Firestar said catching up to Lobo easily. "I don't take kindly to being called that!"

"Oh, so you're a sensitive bitch! That's nice. Now frag off!" Lobo flew through the hole Validus had made and got off his motorcycle searching for his quarry as the people who were working in the office ran out of the suite in a panic.

"Who are these people?"

"One of them looks like the Hulk with long hair!"

"He's gorgeous!" a young woman exclaimed with a sigh.

"Who's the other guy?"

"I don't know and I don't care. I'm getting out of here!"

"You want a fight? I got your fight. I got your fight right here," Validus said as he leaped into Lobo fists first straight into the chalk skinned man's abdomen.

"Oof! So you're not a total coward." !WAP! Lobo nailed Validus' jaw with a right cross while wearing titanium steel brass knuckles. Then Validus struck back with a right hook. While the two warriors went at it toe to toe, office equipment and papers went flying all over the place. The powerful punches and kicks against the invulnerable bodies of the combatants inside the building created shockwaves that broke the glass of nearby windows.

"I'm taking this outside, Lobo!" Val said as he struck the villain knocking him through another wall outside the building.

"I'm ordering you to stop this minute, Validus!" the red headed heroine said with her hands on her hips emitting an aura of heat.

"Not now, little girl! I'm in the middle of a fight here," Val said rather testily.

"Little girl?" Firestar said, a little bit perturbed.

"If I don't get out of this building fast, Lobo will come back here and..." !POW! "Aaaah!" Lobo **had** gotten back into the building through another entrance and struck Rick from behind knocking him through the same hole Lobo had knocked him through in the first place.

"You shouldn't turn your back on the main man, greenie!" Lobo said with a sense of triumph. "What are you looking at sweet cheeks?" Lobo said, regarding Firestar and her cleavage baring uniform with a lascivious leer, taking a swipe at her that seemed to have missed but actually sliced open further her top all the way down to her navel as Firestar flew backwards out of range of any more attacks.

"You can't hit me, Lobo or whatever your name is. Now stop this fighting! You're both under arrest!" Firestar stated with authority as her wardrobe malfunction continued to open up without her being aware of it.

"Stuff it and fragg off, ya bitch! You think showing me a great pair of tits is gonna stop me? What are you gonna do, slam your boobs into me?" Lobo sneered as he leaped through the now very large hole which had been recently been enlarged.

"What? What are you talking about? And don't call me a bitch!" As Firestar flew after the chalked skinned villain, attempting to blast him with her powerful microwave energy blasts, she noticed a huge smile on his face. "What's so funny?"

"You have a nice pair of assets, babe. I may just not want to kill you right away. If you're nice to me, I won't kill you at all," Lobo said admiring the visage of the beautiful, young woman with a toothy grin.

Then Firestar felt a draft. Looking down, the young super hero noticed that her open midriff costume had opened up all together, tearing away to almost nothing and giving Lobo an unrestricted view of her chest and upper body. "Oh! This is the last time I wear something like this!" Firestar exclaimed in embarrassed indignation as she put her arms over her exposed bosom, overtly blushing from head to toe.

"Wow! The main man is impressed! I'll deal with you later, bitch! But right now I'm gonna finish off that jolly green giant. Now where is he? Oof!" Lobo yelled as an enraged Validus came back, smashing into him.

"It's over, Lobo!" Validus kept the initiative pounding on the chalk faced villain, doing more damage than he got as Lobo struck back until he had beaten Lobo into unconsciousness a few minutes later.

"Ungh!" the chalk skinned villain moaned as he feel to the floor.

"Whew. That was a fight!" Validus exclaimed, his massive chest heaving with every breath as he calmed down after having finally defeated his nemesis.

"Are you done, now?" Firestar asked impatiently as she hovered in the air in front of him with her hands on her hips.

"Yeah, sure, Firestar. You might want to call the other Avengers. You'll need to keep this guy in a room full of gas; that's his only weakness. Whoa! What happened to your top?" Validus asked, regarding the cute and sexy, currently topless super heroine.

"Is that all you men think about? Must you stare like that?" Firestar said covering herself with her arms while blushing pink then red in embarrassment.

_"Gosh, she's hot!"_

A moment later, Captain America and Hawkeye arrived. "Do you mind telling us who you are, mister?" Cap demanded, regarding all the damage in the suite and the giant sized, green skinned warrior.

"Yeah, sure, Cap. It's a long story," Validus said with a sheepish smile on his face.

XXX

AUTHOR'S NOTES: If you've enjoyed this let me know by sending me a review. Now I'd like to give props to the people who have given me reviews for the last chapter.

Excel, gen x, Redzorin, Kool Moe D., Sir Thames, luger 7, They call me Bruce


	4. Meeting with the Avengers

Validus

!SOUND EFFECTS! _"THOUGHTS"_

Chapter Four

AUTHOR'S NOTES: This part of the story takes place right after the Avengers returned from being almost killed by Onslaught and after having dealt with Morgan Le Fey who had all of them under her control for a period of time. By this time the Avengers have been reformed to Captain America, Ironman, Thor, Vision, Scarlet Witch, Hawkeye, Warbird with Justice and Firestar being Avengers-in-Training. Giant Man and the Wasp are there and haven't left as of yet.

XXX

After Lobo had been put in cell in the Avengers Mansion, and Firestar had gotten a new uniform, Captain America and the other Avengers interrogated Validus in the main Avengers meeting room. "All right, son. Now tell us who you are and what your story is."

"Sure, Cap," Validus said, talking with a great deal of familiarity which grated a little on the Avengers. As the time went on, Validus told them everything that had happened from when he left for the DC universe up until his recent return.

"I find it hard to believe those comic book characters would be real," Vance also known as Justice said regarding the green skinned Validus.

"I guess you've never heard of Lobo either," Rick said to Vance.

"That guy does look like that comic book character, Lobo, but that couldn't really be him. The Lobo I remember was invincible. I can't see a wannabe like you beating up someone that tough, Rick," Vance replied.

"Be that as it may, my electronic sensors tell me Rick or Validus as he calls himself is telling the truth," Ironman stated through his armor. "But it's possible he's simply hallucinating."

"It wasn't a hallucination. I'm surprised you have a hard time believing me. You know who I am and that I've been a Hulk before, so what's the surprise?" Validus asked, perturbed that the heroes assembled before him didn't believe him.

"We actually don't know that for certain, but I would like to take some tests," Henry Pym otherwise known as Giantman said as he regarded the new superhero. "W e'll be able to figure out who you are and what your powers are then."

"All right. If it makes everything quicker, let's do it!"

XXX

After Dr. Pym had run tests on Validus, he explained his results to the Avengers. "Validus' story checks out. He is Rick Jones, and it's highly conceivable that the Leader could have ignited Rick's residual gamma energy. Rick's resurgent gamma power has been increased to make him become what he is now."

"How about Rick's imaginary friends, the Legion of Super Heroes?" Hawkeye interjected, giving Validus a look of contempt.

"I find that story a little hard to believe, but it makes sense that Rick got his other powers from somewhere."

"What other powers does he have?" Janet Van Dyne, the Wasp, asked her husband.

"The clothes he's wearing allow him to fly despite the fact that he can actually leap longer distances.

"You mean the clothes he's hardly wearing?" Janet said with a smirk as she admired the gorgeous jade skinned, bare chested hero with long hair wearing only his dark/green studded wrist bracelets, pants, belt, and boots.

"What he's wearing is tacky and worse than what the Hulk often wears," Hawkeye interjected.

"Oh, I don't know," Janet replied, giving Rick another look. "I think the look works for him."

"Anyway," Hank Pym interjected. "He can survive the rigors of outer space without little need to breathe. This is in addition to the powers the Hulk would normally have, including his strength which is actually greater than the Hulk's normally is. Validus can also increase his strength when he gets angry."

"You said something about him getting stronger when he gets angry. How much of a temper does he have? Will he go berserk over the slightest provocation?" the Scarlet Witch asked as she shot Rick a suspicious look.

"No. No more than anyone else would. However, he is capable of going to berserk. If he had to do that in order to lift something or fight someone his biggest problem would be getting angry enough unless he was in pain or something like that."

"Is he stronger than Thor or Hercules?" Justice asked.

"He's a little stronger than either of them to begin with, but his strength would dwarf either of theirs if a fight lasted long enough," Dr. Pym answered.

"How about if I use my probability powers to change Validus back into normal Rick Jones?" the Scarlet Witch asked, curious to see what would happen.

"You can try," Rick consented.

"I don't think it will work, Wanda," Dr. Pym said as the Scarlet Witch strained, using her powers to no effect.

"I don't get it. I've used my probability powers to change the Hulk back into his normal form in the past, but why I can't change Rick back now?"

"It's impossible to change him back. In addition to his other powers he's immune to transformation and power drain attacks. He's the way he is permanently. I guess his 'imaginary' friends in this Legion of Super Heroes helped Rick out a lot," Dr. Pym said while shooting Hawkeye a look.

"Just what the world needs a loser with the powers of a flying Hulk and then some," Hawkeye said nonchalantly.

"Being immune to power drains would have been useful for me several years back," Warbird also known as Carol Danvers said as she admired the gorgeous, new super hero.

"With the help of the Avengers main computer, my analysis of Validus has informed me that he is in fact Rick Jones transformed into what he is now," the holographic image of the Vision stated logically as it appeared in the center of the table over them. "I also can tell he's telling the truth without any kind of insanity being involved."

"He looks like She-Hulk's younger brother," Firestar announced as she regarded Validus. "He's beautiful as opposed to being ugly like the Hulk. He's even better looking than She-Hulk!"

"What were Superman and Supergirl like?" Vance asked trying to change the subject. "Did they look like Brandon Routh and Laura Vandervoort?"

"No. They didn't look anything like them. They were more like the comic book characters as opposed to the movie characters. Superman was very honorable, a real stand-up guy like Cap," Val explained. "And Supergirl was a lot hotter in person than she is in the comic book."

"Really?" Vance asked, looking a little too interested as far as Firestar was concerned.

"Yeah, dude. Who knows how far things would have went had there been more time?" Validus had just gotten comfortable, leaning back with his hands clasped behind his head when everyone heard a loud crash and the sound of a motorcycle going off.

"Later ya bastiches! I'm not sticking around here. I'm gonna explore this world and universe. When I'm done, I'll see about fraggin all of yas!" Lobo said in a loud voice as he flew off into space in his motorcycle.

"What the?" Val got out of his seat to chase after Lobo. But before he could fly off after the biker warrior, he found a strong hand restraining him.

"Hold, Validus! Thou art not finished answering to the Avengers yet," Thor admonished as he held one of his arms fast.

"He's getting away!" Validus snapped.

"He is of no consequence! We shalt speak of thine enemy in good time. But for the nonce, you still hath much to answer for," Thor bellowed.

"Answer for? That guy's a dangerous killer. I felt the need to grab him, so what do you want me to do?" Val asked.

"That guy's just a kook, Rick. It's obvious to me that ever since you've gotten your wish to be a superhero, you've gotten delusions of grandeur," Hawkeye interjected while Validus stared at the archer blankly.

"Fine then! Let's get my interrogation over with, so I can bring that guy in."

"There's no need for hostility, Rick." Captain America said, calming the situation down. "And we can't go arresting some strange guy just on your say so. As it is, this Lobo does not have a record despite whatever he did when he was where he came from. If he becomes a problem here, we'll deal with him."

"What now?"

"I was thinking of having you join the Avengers on a reserve basis. We'll have to have you go through some paperwork, but after that's done we'll see what happens from there," Cap explained.

"I'd like to test Rick or Validus as he calls himself in the training room," Warbird suggested.

"All right."

XXX

Warbird and Validus were in the training room while the other Avengers watched them go at it. Warbird started the fight off with a legsweep that Validus blocked by crouching down on one knee locking the attacking leg. Then Validus counter attacked with a leg sweep as well, knocking the powerful blond off of her feet.

"Your feet are more agile than I would have imagined, Rick," Warbird said, regarding his well-muscled legs with a smile. "Let's see what else you got."

"All right," Validus replied as he struck the rising Warbird in her stomach with a fast jab.

"Oof!" Warbird came back with a lightning fast roundhouse kick that Rick ducked as the leg swooped over him. "You're pretty good, Rick. I didn't believe you acquired such fighting ability in another dimension, but I'm starting to believe it now."

"Thanks, Karate Kid was a great instructor," Rick answered back.

"Karate Kid? Are you talking about Ralph Macchio?" Carol inquired as she attempted a fast paced, forward snap kick that missed.

"No. Never mind." Then the emerald gladiator tagged her with a lightning fast, fist strike.

_"I haven't gotten a single attack on him. I can tell he's holding back, but that jab still hurt. I'm going to try something else," _Warbird thought to herself as she moved in on Validus, going at it with him toe to toe.

"You sure about this, Carol?" Rick said as they traded blows with the green giant blocking and countering all of her attacks while getting a few well-placed strikes in.

_"He's slowly wearing me down with concentrated hits. If he was going at it full strength he'd have knocked my head off by now."_

_"I better end this before I seriously injure her." _"Let's wrestle," Validus said, quickly knocking Warbird off of her feet with another legsweep. As Warbird fell to the ground, Rick moved in on her. Then he pinned down to the ground by grappling her legs with his legs, holding her wrists to the ground while holding her arms up. At this point he was bearing on top of her, staring down on the young woman.

"It's not over yet!" Warbird said as her eyes lit up striking Validus with a powerful flash attack that Rick shook off to the surprise of his opponent and everyone else there.

"Ouch! That was brutal."

"All's fair in love and war. You know the saying," Warbird said with an arrogant smile despite the compromised position she was in.

All right. Now it's time for a nerve attack," Validus said as he held both of her upraised arms. Then he quickly moved his hands down and tickled his captive under her arms and ribs.

"Ha ha ha ha! Stop! He he he he he he! Mercy!" Carol giggled helplessly as her body wriggled in an attempt to get out of the hold in vain.

"Give up?"

"Yes! Yes! Ha ha ha ha! Uncle!" Warbird gasped as Rick stopped and let her go, helping her up. "Gasp! That was horrible, Rick. I'd be furious with you if I didn't like you so much."

"Well, the other alternate was seriously injuring you; you're the one who wanted to fight. So what did you want me to do?" Validus answered with a smile.

"Yeah. It's not so much being tickled, but the ease at which you defeated me. I'm embarrassed," the striking blond said, pink and flushed.

"Don't feel bad about it, Carol. I've changed a great deal, even if it's hard for everyone here to see me as something more than a loser. Some of the super heroes in the DC universe thought I was a loser as well."

"Which ones were they?" Vance Astrovik asked curiously.

"Booster Gold and Blue Beetle, to name a few."

"Hmmm. If I remember right, those two were losers," Vance answered. "It could be that those two felt the need to look down on you, so they could feel better about themselves."

"Maybe you're right, Vance," Validus said looking over to Hawkeye who had been surprised by his fighting prowess but was now glaring at Vance.

"Spare us the psycho-babble, Dr. Phil. Rick just lucked out. He used to be the pauper; now he's a prince when it comes to power. I guess super powers just happen."

"Hey, Hawkeye! I've been a hulk before. But is Vance right? Are you jealous of me, or have you always looked down on me?"

"You're both crazy! You've finally got some powers and now you have delusions of grandeur. You need to get over yourself, Validus!" With that having been said Hawkeye stormed out of the training room.

XXX

After all the paperwork was done, Validus was given his Avengers card. "Well, Rick. Now that you're finally an Avenger literally instead of figuratively, what are you going to do?" Warbird asked as she regarded the emerald gladiator.

"I'm going to Disneyland!" Rick announced happily causing everyone in the room to face fault practically falling to the ground. "Hey, I'm just kidding. I'm not sure what I'll do now. I guess I'll have to figure out a place to live."

"Where were you living before?" Firestar asked.

"Oh no!" Rick gasped. "I have to tell Marlo's family about her death! What will I tell them?"

"Just tell them the truth," Justice answered. "That's all you can do."

"It's not that easy, kid. It's not easy to explain to someone's parents that a megalomaniac super villain killed their daughter in order to induce you to become more powerful so he could drain you," Validus explained.

"Maybe I should go with you when you tell them," Warbird offered. "It will be easier if you have a friend there with you when you tell them what happened."

"Thanks, Warbird, but this is something I have to do for myself. If you guys need me you know how to call me. I'm out of here!" That being said, Validus left the compound and took to the skies.

XXX

"Hello, Mrs. Chandler?" Rick asked as someone answered the phone. He was calling from a pay phone when he called Marlo's mother doing his best to try to sound like he did before he got his powers.

"Yes, that's me. Rick is that you? Your voice is so much deeper. Have you been taking steroids?"

"Uh, no. It's a long story. A super villain kidnapped Marlo and me."

"What? How's Marlo? Where's my little girl?"

"She was killed. I'm very sorry, Mrs. Chandler."

"What?! I knew she shouldn't have married you. It was a matter of time before all the freaks you hang out with caught up with you or her. Who was the maniac that killed her?" Marlo's mother cried.

"His name was the Leader. I don't know what else to tell you. I..."

"You filthy bastard! You had to get my baby killed by one of those nuts you deal with on a daily basis. We'll just come over to the apartment and get her things. Then I never want to see you again, you superhero wannabe!" !CLICK!

"That went well," Validus said sadly.

"Excuse you!" a sophisticated, middle aged woman said from behind him. "I need to use the phone."

"Yeah, all right." Rick walked away wearing an overcoat which he got while at the Avengers Mansion.

"Wait a minute! Are you green skinned or something?" the long haired blond, shapely and smartly dressed woman asked as Validus walked away.

"I don't have time to explain, ma'am. The phone's free now."

"It's not that. You look like She-Hulk's younger brother. Are you some kind of new super hero?"

"Yes. Now I need to..."

"There's a giant spaceship on its way here. Maybe You oughtta check it out," the woman said, pointing at the large spacecraft which was saucer shaped and 50 feet in diameter.

"That's a Skrull spaceship! What's it doing over here?" Validus announced, quick changing into his superhero uniform. He then bounded into the sky, making his way towards Skrullian spacecraft.

"Wow! Now that's hot! I want me some of that!" the woman said, smiling and admiring the view of Validus' half naked body as he took off for the spaceship. "I wonder what his name is, Hulk-Junior?"

XXX

AUTHOR'S NOTES: I hope you've enjoyed reading this. I surely have enjoyed writing this. Now I would like to thank the people who left me reviews for the last chapter.

Kool Moe D., luger 7, Excel, Sir Thames


	5. Skrull Drudgery

Validus

!SOUND EFFECTS! _"THOUGHTS"_

Chapter Five

Validus took off for the Skrull spacecraft at full speed, but as he got closer he was hit by a powerful energy blast. "Aargh!" Rick screamed as the blast knocked him several feet backwards end over end.

"What did you just shoot at, Lieutenant?" the captain of the vessel demanded.

"It was the Hulk, Captain. But he seemed a little smaller for some reason!" the weapons officer answered.

"Give me a replay of the attack!" After seeing the tape of Validus being knocked back the captain said, "he looks a little different, more like the accursed She-Hulk."

"He's coming back!" !WHAM!

"Damage report!" the Skrull captain ordered.

"Ship is 30 percent damaged."

"Helmsman! Where are you taking us?"

"I'm not taking us anywhere, Captain. We're being taken to the outskirts of New York towards the Catskill Mountains."

"Hmmm. I'll inform the Emperor of what has transpired..."

"Never mind that, Captain! I know what happened. I'll deal with this hulk imposter myself. Make the necessary repairs on the ship, so that my plans can be made true after I've dealt with our 'guest'," Kl'rt the Super Skrull ordered.

"Yes, Your Majesty," the captain responded.

!BOOM! The large, 50 foot diameter, circular craft landed on the ground with a thud while Validus rested from his labor. _"I don't know what will happen next, but at least no innocents will get hurt out here."_

"Who dares interfere with the plans of the Super Skrull?" an obviously powerful Skrull announced flying at Rick with a fiery trail behind him.

"I do!"

"Who are you?" the Super Skrull demanded.

"I am Validus!" Rick announced with a pose that would have not only impressed most people but most aliens as well. However, Kl'rt was only a little bit impressed.

"You think you're a match for the mightiest of all the Skrulls? You Hulk replica! I'll show you the error of your ways." The Skrull immediately flew at the emerald warrior in a fiery rage, a flaming aura surrounding him. However, Val moved out of the way with such speed he surprised the powerful Skrull who kept on flying past him and into a small mountain. !CRASH!BOOM!

"You are obviously a lot quicker than the Hulk and obviously a coward as well. I see I'm going to have to..." !ZOOM! The Super Skrull wasn't able to finish his sentence as Rick super leaped into him fists first at full speed.

"Ungh!"_"I have to think of something fast. The strength of this Validus is as great as the Hulk's plus he's a whole lot smarter. I cannot afford to take any more blows of such power." _The Super Skrull went smashing deeper into the wooded mountain and used his Skrull shape changing powers to turn himself into a medium sized boulder.

_"He must be around here somewhere," _Rick thought as he searched the dark, damp cave. At that moment the boulder which was the Super Skrull came to life and flew at him with flames around it, slamming into the jade warrior, taking him right back out of the dark cave.

"Fool! You forget about we Skrull's ability to change our shape. You are no more intelligent than the Hulk who's probably your brother or something like that. No matter. I am powerful enough to defeat the real Hulk or the fake Hulk you are with shameless ease."

"All you did was knock me through a mountain. Big deal! I'm nowhere near being beaten. In fact, I'm just warming up. I kind of hoped I hadn't defeated you so quickly. You're a lot stronger than I recall you being. Have you been suped up? I hope so; I just love being able to cut loose."

"My power **has** increased! And you still think you can defeat the Super Skrull, the mightiest Skrull of all? I'll give you the fight of your life!" With that the Skrull came at Validus in a fiery rage and was surprised when Validus clapped his hands together and shoved his hands forwards, creating a shockwave that blew the flames right off of the Skrull and knocked him backwards."

Rick then flew at his opponent at attacking, going toe to toe with him. Validus struck the powerful Skrull with countless punches and kicks fighting him in a DragonballZ manner as the Skrull countered in the best way he could which didn't cut it as Rick got more and more hits in.

_"This is pointless! Not only is this Hulk wannabe strong and powerful, he's also skilled in combat. I'll have to shape shift into something else, but first I'm going to blast him with enough flame to at least stun him," _Kl'rt thought to himself as he blasted Validus with such a powerful flame attack that the emerald gladiator felt the heat.

"Yeow!" Validus screamed, but as soon as he had recovered the Skrull was gone. _"Now where did he go?"_

At that moment the ground under Validus opened causing the emerald gladiator to fall towards the mouth of what looked like a black, hideous giant sized worm with sharp teeth. Rick tried to avoid the gaping, smelly, 12 foot diameter mouth in vain as he was swallowed up.

Rick screamed as the digestive juices of the giant worm like creature engulfed him while he was in the creature's large, tubular stomach, making him angrier by the second until finally, he punched his way out, practically exploding the worm like body he was in.

"Yarrrgh!" the Super Skrull screamed as Validus came flying out of him. After that he simply reformed, but he was in a world of pain as Validus got his bearings and tried to find out where the Skrull had gone off to. As Validus looked around he spotted a tree among the other trees that wasn't there before. Rick then walked calmly towards it.

"Gee, I wonder where the Super Skrull is. Where did he go?" Validus asked out loud as he put his hand over his eyes, pretending to search all over the place for his quarry.

_"He'll never find me now that I'm in the shape of this tree. As soon as I've recovered I'll blast him again. I'll do whatever I have to in order to defeat this Hulk clone, my plans are too important. There's an artifact here which will allow the Skrull Empire which is finally under my control to conquer the universe! The diamond-like Dilithium Crystal_ _will increase the power of our interstellar armada. And it's important we Skrulls get to it before the accursed Kree or Shiar get to it. Oh, Validus is walking right by. Now I'm going to..."_ "Aargh!" the Super Skrull screamed as Validus struck him in his current form, hard and fast!

"Surprised, dude? I've long since learned how to recognize a Skrull when I saw one from the time I was merged with Captain Marvel. I can spot a Skrull no matter what he looks like. You really should not have underestimated the mighty Validus!" Rick said with a triumphant pose as he stood over his fallen foe.

"But how? Unless. It can't be!" the Skrull said finally realizing who it really was.

"Yes, that's right. I'm Rick Jones. But my super hero name is Validus."

"To think I've been defeated by a buffoon such as you. Will I ever live the shame down?"

"Loser? I'm sick and tired of hearing that!" !CRACK! With that the jade warrior knocked the now normal shaped Skrull out.

"So ya finally got yourself some powers," a craggy voice called out.

"The Fantastic Four! What are you doing here?" Validus announced, turning to the source of the voice.

"We have Skrull detectors at the our home base, so we knew the Skrulls were here, having seen you carry the Skrull ship all the way out here. Good work bringing it where no one would be hurt, by the way," Reed Richards said with the rest of his comrades in the Fantastic Four right behind him.

"Yeah. Ya got lucky, kid. I still find it hard to believe you managed to beat someone with all of our powers. Ya must feel really good about yourself," the Thing bellowed with his arms across his chest, seeming to be unimpressed.

"We've defeated the other Skrulls, so you won't have to worry about them, Rick. You seemed to know what you were doing out there. It's like you've had your powers for a long time when you couldn't have had them for too long. I'd like to examine you at a later date," Mr. Fantastic said in a scientific manner.

"Thanks, Reed, but Henry Pym has already examined me and given me his stamp of approval, so there's no more need for that. If you need more information about me you can talk to Dr. Pym about it," Validus answered, not wanting to go through being tested all over again.

"Hmm. Yes. With all due respect for Henry Pym and putting aside all modesty, he's not as intelligent as I am, and he doesn't have the advanced equipment that we have at the Four Freedom's Plaza."

"He's smart enough for me and the Avengers, Reed. So he'll have to suffice."

"Listen here, Kid. Stretcho here is the smartest guy on the planet. You'd be wise to take his advice."

"That's all right, Ben. Henry Pym is one of the best in his field. But I heard you say something about being able to detect Skrulls. I didn't know Captain Marvell was able to do that."

"Yeah, he was. In fact the lady with black hair standing next to Johnny is a Skrull, too," Validus said, regarding the beautiful brunette standing next to the Human Torch.

"I'm amazed that you'd be able to tell that, Rick," Susan Storm said appearing to the right him with a device in her hands.

"Gee, I didn't know you were there, Mrs. Richards. What's that in your hands?"

"It's an ID machine Reed built. It told us who you were."

"We'd appreciate if you didn't tell anyone we have a Skrull with us," Johnny said standing next to his wife, Lyja who had just shape shifted into her normal Skrull form.

"All right. You two are married, aren't you?"

"Yes. How did you know that?"

"I was in another universe where everybody here is a comic book character."

"Hmmm. I see. Well, you had better let us handle things from here on right, Rick. We know more about the Skrulls than anybody else."

"All right, Reed. I'll leave you to it."

!BEEP!BEEP!BEEP! At the sound of the beep, Validus took out his Avengers ID card.

"Validus! It's very important you get back to New York right away! The other Avengers are investigating a plane that crashed off of the northern coast of Maine. The Avengers Mansion is under attack by Gladiator," the holographic image of the Vision calmly stated over the commlink.

"All right, Vision. I'm on the way."

"It would be best if you hurry. Vance and Firestar can't hold him off for long and my body hasn't been repaired yet so I can't..." !CLICK! After the Vision had been cut off Rick heard another voice.

"I'm surprised the Avengers weren't here to greet me instead of these two children and the holographic Vision. But feel free to show up here, Validus."

"Gladiator! What's your game?" Validus answered.

"I'm on the lookout for a particular object. I thought the computers here would help me to find this object but no matter. If you want to find me, you'll have to get here quickly. I won't wait too long for you," the mighty Gladiator bellowed from inside the Avengers Mansion's computer room.

"Just you wait! I'll be right there! I gotta go guys!" Validus said to the Fantastic Four as he took off for New York.

"We'll give you guys a hand when we're done here," Reed said.

"Rick Jones finally gets to be a super hero. Will wonders ever cease?" Johnny said as Validus leaped into the sky in a similar manner to the Incredible Hulk as he made his way back to New York City.

"We should get back to the Four Freedoms Plaza as soon as we're done here, Reed," Susan Storm, the Invisible Woman said. "If Gladiator's here looking for something, it's no coincidence that the Skrulls are here too."

"Yes, Sue. We'll figure out what's going on soon enough."

XXX

"You arrived here rather quickly. I can see you're much akin to a Hulk except smaller, but you're still no match for me," a large purple man with a huge mohawk, wearing a red Shiar uniform with an impressive cape said as he regarded the emerald Avenger.

"What exactly are you looking for, Gladiator?" Validus said, looking at the damage all around the Avengers Mansion with Justice and Firestar on the ground unconscious.

"I don't mind telling since you won't be able to stop me. I'm searching for an object called the Dilithium Crystal; it's a device which can power just about anything. The Shiar have been informed that it has been implanted here on the earth. I don't know where it is but I intend to find it."

"I normally wouldn't care all that much, but since you've struck down some Avengers and damaged our base you'll have to answer for it. Now, let's step outside."

XXX

AUTHOR'S NOTES: I hope you've enjoyed reading this. I surely have enjoyed writing this. Now I would like to thank the reviewers of the previous chapters.

Redzorin, They call me Bruce, AshK, Kool Moe D., luger 7, gen x, Sir Thames, Excel, Ywen

I also would like to give special mention to the fanfic author, Greybird, who helped me with the pictures of Validus at my website.


	6. Gladiatorial Battle

Validus

!SOUND EFFECTS! _"THOUGHTS"_

Chapter Six

!SMASH! The powerful punch from Gladiator sent the emerald warrior flying through the entrance and right onto the street. With unexpected super human speed Gladiator flew out towards him, ready to strike again when Rick used his superior skill to hit the oncoming mohawked warrior with countless punch and kick combinations which knocked the Gladiator several yards back down the street.

"Hmm." Gladiator shook off the effects of Rick's recent barrage and turned towards him. "I guess you have Hulk's strength as well more agility. But despite all that, I'm still the greatest warrior of the universe. Nothing can stop me."

"You can't come to the Avengers headquarters and do as you please. Now I'm going to kick your ass!" Validus renewed his attack, coming at Gladiator again with several powerful blows on the indestructible alien's body which resounded in shockwaves, which were heard from blocks away. The sounds were so great that even nearby glass windows on buildings and automobiles shattered under the strain.

"You dare to think you can defeat the mighty Gladiator? I shall show you the error of your ways!"

"Stuff it! I don't care who you are. You're just a blowhard. I've sparred with better men than you!"

"Fool! there's no one better than me!" Gladiator attempted to counter to Validus's attacks but Rick's skill in hand to hand combat was too much for him, allowing the jade warrior to connect with three blows for every two blows he took. Eventually, Gladiator realized this exchange wasn't good for him so he created a shockwave by clapping his two hands together, knocking Validus back several feet.

_"I was winning! I'll have to keep on this guy," _Rick thought abruptly as his opponent didn't give him much time to think, attempting to hit him with a flying charging attack. But Rick quickly dropped his back to the ground, avoiding the attack. As Gladiator flew over him, Validus grabbed him, using his opponent's momentum, redirecting him upward and throwing him into the sky. While Gladiator was ten thousand feet high away from the city Rick power leaped into him fists first, striking him hard in the stomach. !KRAKADOOM!

"Oof!" Gladiator recovered quickly and responded by clasping his hands together and smashing the top of Rick's head with an axe handle strike. As Rick came crashing down towards the earth Gladiator blasted him with his heat vision.

"Aargh! Now you've made me angryyy!" Validus screamed, flying towards his opponent in a rage, his muscles pulsating.

"So what? I'll still defeat you. I'll... Ungh!" Validus came back, striking fast and hard, going at it toe to toe with the alien warrior. Punching, kicking, blocking, neither combatant backing down. However, as the fight went on Validus got stronger and stronger until finally he kneed his opponent in the groin, making Gladiator lurch forward; once that happened Validus struck his exposed jaw with a powerful elbow that knocked Gladiator warrior upwards, stunning him. Despite all this Rick continued to pummel his opponent, punching him in the solar plexus and then hitting him with a vicious head to nose head-butt which broke the mighty Gladiator's nose. Then Validus struck Gladiator with several rapid fire roundhouse kicks.

"Hey, Rick!"

"What?!" Validus screamed angrily, turning towards the sound of the voice, his own eyes, bulging with rage.

"Hasn't he had enough? You really went to berserk in this fight. I know you're similar to the Hulk, but do you have to lose your temper in order to win fights with powerful foes?" Floating in the air several yards away from Validus and his defeated opponent was Quasar!

"Yeah, I suppose. I had to get pissed off in order to beat this guy up."

"I see. Anyway, Vision called me here when he saw your fight. He didn't think you would win, but he was obviously wrong. Let's come back down to the earth. I'll put Gladiator in a quantum construct which will stay wrapped around him until we can get to the bottom of all this."

At that moment their Avengers ID cards transmitted a message from the Vision. "Quasar! Validus! Are you all right?"

"We're fine, Vision. Validus has just defeated Gladiator. We're coming down," Quasar answered.

"Come down at once! There are giant monsters in several areas of the world! I'm calling in some more reserve Avengers. I'll explain all of this in the Avengers meeting room."

"Roger that, Vision. We're on our way. You heard him, Rick. Looks like the day ain't over."

"No problem, Quasar. I'm just getting warmed up."

XXX

In the Avengers meeting room there was still places to sit despite the wreckage from the fight Gladiator had had with Firestar and Justice, and eventually Validus as well. In addition to Quasar and the others sat reserve Avengers, Moondragon and Squirrel Girl! Moondragon was wearing her normal open midriff green uniform which looked like a one piece swimsuit along with her green cape and boots. Squirrel Girl wore an outfit that complimented her attractive but squirrel like appearance. She had two buck teeth, a bushy tail and a perky squirrel on her shoulder. All in all, the fuzzy girl looked cute.

A hologram of the Vision was also there. He was only there in "spirit" due to the fact his body hadn't been completely repaired yet after having been decimated during the recent battle with Morgan Le Fey which had included all the Avengers.

"I must admit, Rick. Your emerald appearance is most appealing," Heather Douglas also known as Moondragon said, as she admired Validus's beautiful and muscular physique with a nice smile on her face.

"Um, thanks, Moondragon."

"There's no need to be so formal, Rick. Call me Heather," the bald but beautiful super heroine said in a regal manner. _"I didn't have much of a chance with Quasar. Maybe I'll have a good chance with Rick Jones. His new green form is absolutely gorgeous!"_

At that moment, She Hulk came blustering in. "So you're the guy everyone thinks is my younger brother!" she announced walking over to Validus.

"Hi, Jennifer. I guess you know all about me by now. So how have you been? Have you seen Bruce lately? I have no idea where he is right now." _"Unless Ironman and the Illuminati have actually sent him into space the way I read in the World War Hulk series when I was in the DC universe," _Rick thought to himself, contemplating the ramifications. _"I'm going to have to ask Tony whether or not he did that. Then I'm going to figure out how to get there and make sure that bomb doesn't kill the Bruce's wife and child."_

"I actually I don't know where he is either. But you do look like my younger brother. I read the report of what happened to you, but I have a hard time believing you were in another universe where we were comic book characters. Did anybody play me in a movie?"

"I think Brigette Nelson played you on a television show once."

"Brigette Nelson? You'd think Rachel McClish or Cory Everson would have played me."

"Can we get to more pressing matters?" Vision's holographic image stated. "We are under what I suspect is an invasion by the Kree, the Skrulls, and the Shiar. Our instruments have shown that all three empires have armadas within Earth's orbital space. I've already notified SHIELD. Right now they're just waiting for them to make a move first."

"I don't think they're here to blow the Earth up necessarily. Both the the Super Skrull and Gladiator said something about finding a dilithium crystal," Validus piped in.

"We heard that too before Gladiator beat us up. Did you really take him on, Rick?" Firestar asked.

"Yep. I beat him all right," Validus said with a sense of pride as he sat back with his hands clasped behind his head, showing off his impressive muscles. "I told you guys I got a lot of experience while in the DC comics universe. I'm not the rookie loser everybody thinks I am."

"Who said you were a loser, Rick?" the jade giantess asked, looking in Validus's direction.

"It was Hawkeye. And I honestly think many of the other Avengers here agree with him despite the fact that I've saved the lives of the Avengers in the past as well as the universe to boot back in the day when I didn't even have any powers."

"You did that? Really?" Squirrel Girl piped in. "Wow!"

"No one here thinks you're a loser, Rick. That being said, we need to stay on point. There are three giant monsters terrorizing the planet right now. One of them is a 50 foot man eating giant in the Amazon Jungle in South America. I've already contacted the core Avengers. Since their battle with the Squadron Supreme is finished they're fighting that giant right now."

The next one is a giant sized spider in Hiroshima, Japan, causing all sorts of problems. It has already caused some destruction and webbed up some of the people who live in the area. It's super strong as it's already defeated Japan's number one super hero, Sunfire."

"Looks like this is a job for Spider-Man!" Spider-Man announced, swinging his way into the main Avengers's meeting room, making a grand entrance. After doing some impressive acrobatic flips he plopped in his seat right next to Squirrel Girl.

"Wow, Spider-Man! It's so great to meet you!" Squirrel Girl exclaimed, sounding like a fangirl.

"Who are you?" the webbed one asked.

"I'm Squirrel Girl. Don't worry about me. Captain America has been training me in secret, keeping me hidden in the wings just in case there was a big emergency like right now. Why are you staring at me?"

"It's just that you have such a huge overbite. Melissa Gilbert, eat your heart out," Spider-Man answered.

"Hey, don't make fun of me!"

"It's your world, Squirrel. I just want a nut."

"Don't make fun of me!"

"Anyway. Who are you, fella?" Spider-Man said, motioning to Validus.

"My super hero name is Validus, but my real name is Rick Jones."

"Rick Jones?" Spider-Man exclaimed finally recognizing him. "You finally get to live your dream, eh? You look like a green version of Hulk Hogan. But that costume is rather tacky."

"Yeah. It's him all right, Spidey," She Hulk answered. "But he looks really good in that getup; he looks almost as good as me."

Spider-Man turned to the jade giantess for a moment. "You do look good, Jen. But I don't judge guys."

"Actually he's even better looking than She Hulk!" Squirrel Girl said in admiration, leaning forward in Validus' direction with her hands on her chin happily.

"Let us get back to the business at hand. As you can see, I've called in Spider-Man, feeling he'd be helpful in this situation. I've also called in other reserve Avengers, asking them to arrive here and help out," the Vision's hologram stated.

At that moment Crystal and Quicksilver arrived along with their teenage daughter, Yuna. "This better be important!" the speedster exclaimed arrogantly, perturbed at being called away from their home.

"It is important. I would not be here otherwise." Right behind the married couple and their teenage daughter was the powerful form of Namor the Sub-Mariner. "I just recently fought a giant sea creature in the depths of the Atlantic Ocean that I had never seen before. When I heard about all these monsters showing up at the same time I figured there was a connection. It's very important we get to the bottom of this."

"Namor! I was wondering. Did you and the Illuminati send the Hulk into outer space?" Validus asked casually.

"I was against the idea of sending him into... Wait! How did you know about all of that?" Namor had a shocked look on his face as he stared Validus in the eyes. "I... Never mind. We have work to do." Everybody had quizzical looks on their faces as they turned back and forth from Validus to the Prince of the Seven Seas.

"What?" She-Hulk exclaimed in shock. "What do you know about my cousin, Namor?"

Namor shot the jade giantess a harsh glare and said in an imperious tone, "this is not the time to discuss that. We can talk about that later."

"That's right," the Vision stated. "I'm sending Spider-Man, She-Hulk, Crystal, Quicksilver and the Sub-Mariner to Japan to deal with the giant spider. A quinjet is waiting for you in the docking bay." As said Avengers left for the quinjet, Namor shot Rick another angry look before leaving with the others in his group.

Then the Vision's hologram turned towards the rest of the Avengers seated there. "The rest of you will go to Death Valley to deal with what looks like a giant mutated gorilla. The original Human Torch is already engaging the creature in battle." The viewing monitor showed the Human torch valiantly fighting the super powered ape and then getting blasted into unconsciousness by none other than Ronan the Accuser who seemed to be in command of the huge creature.

"I thought he had lost his powers," Squirrel Girl piped in.

"His powers have gradually been coming back. He has also been practicing to increase his powers and the ability to control them.

"We better get there quick then! So what are we waiting for? Avengers Assemble!" Validus yelled, raising his hand as the current roster of Avengers joined in the battle cry, running towards the waiting Quinjet.

XXX

AUTHOR'S NOTES: I hope you've enjoyed reading this. If you have, take a look at my fanfic, DC Universe Adventures of Rick Jones, which takes place during the time Validus was in the DC universe.

Now I'd like to give props to the people who gave reviews for the previous chapters.

Sir Thames, They call me Bruce, Redzorin, AshK, gen x, Excel, luger 7, Ywen, Kool Moe D.

As you've seen in the story, I've decided to have Squirrel Girl join the Avengers. I don't know exactly what her powers and abilities are, but here's how I'm doing her abilities.

FIGHTING: REMARKABLE (This means having a superior natural talent in hand to hand combat)

AGILITY: UNEARTHLY(This is beyond what a human is capable of with intensive training with the ability to dodge lasers with ease)

STRENGTH: EXCELLENT(The ability to lift in the neighborhood of 800 pounds, but Squirrel Girl can actually lift 1,000 pounds)

ENDURANCE: REMARKABLE(extensive exercise, the human limit)

REASON: GOOD(Above average intelligence)

INTUITION: INCREDIBLE(Strong empathic sense, gut feeling)

PSYCHE: GOOD(Above average will power)

HEALTH: 180

KARMA: 60

RESOURCES: POOR

POPULARITY: 10

POWERS:

CLIMBING: Amazing, she can run up walls without slowing down at all.

HYPER-RUNNING: Amazing

HYPER-LEAPING: Amazing

HYPER-SWIMMING: Typical

PREHENSILE TAIL: Use as additional arm, three to four feet long

GLIDING: Excellent

TRACKING: Excellent

THICK SKIN: Good resistance to physical and energy attacks

RESISTANCE TO COLD: Good

ENHANCED SENSES: Amazing

ULTRAVIOLET VISION: Incredible

DANGER SENSE: Excellent

CLAWS: Remarkable damage

BITE: Good edged damage

ANIMAL CONTROL COMMUNICATION/CONTROL-Squirrels: Unearthly

TALENTS:

Acrobatics, Tumbling, Stealth, Martial Arts: B, C, E, Survival, Knowledge Skill: squirrels and forest life, Knowledge Skill: super heroes

ANIMAL SIDEKICK: Monkey Joe, a very intelligent squirrel


	7. Conspiracy Theories

Validus

!SOUND EFFECTS! _"THOUGHTS"_

Chapter Seven

On their way to Death Valley in Southern California, Squirrel Girl tapped Validus on the shoulder. "What was all that about?"

"What do you mean?" Rick answered.

"I'm talking about this Illuminati you were talking about. I've heard of several conspiracy groups, but I didn't think any of them existed. Did they really send the Hulk into space?"

"I suspect so."

"I don't believe they would send the Hulk into outer space. That would be foolish. He has always exhibited an uncanny tendency to come back from such adversity, so I don't think anyone would be that stupid," Moondragon stated with a sense of certainty.

"I saw the look on Namor's face, Validus. How did you know about all that?" Quasar asked.

"You know how I was in another universe, don't you? Well, in that universe we were comic book characters the same way the characters of that universe are comic book characters here," Validus replied stoically.

"Comic books? You make serious accusations based on comic books?" Moondragon exclaimed incredulously. "You're not much smarter than I thought you were previously. It's obvious you got brawn and beauty but no brains."

"Listen, Heather. I'm actually smarter than I used to be, having gotten some intelligence from a very smart person."

The beautiful, bald mentalist paused, regarding Rick for a moment. Then she said in a sophisticated manner, "your delusions of grandeur are so disappointing. I rather fancied you until now, Validus."

"Don't feel bad about it, Rick. You actually dodged a bullet there," Quasar said, remembering the problems he had when Moondragon had fallen in love with him.

"What was that? You had your chance, Wendell. Don't start crying over spilled milk now." Quasar looked back from piloting the quinjet to look at Moondragon for a moment then turned his eyes towards where the craft was going.

"All right, people, look alive!" Everyone turned to the back of the quinjet to see Janet Van Dyne otherwise known as the winsome Wasp, growing to full size after having shrunk to microscopic size, listening to what everyone had been saying.

"Rick, let's not discuss any conspiracy theories until we've solved our current problems, OK?"

"All right, Janet," Validus answered. "Did the Vision send you here?"

"Yes. I took time off from my vacation to help in this emergency. So I'll be leading this expedition."

"Maybe I should lead," Moondragon piped in.

"I'm in charge, Heather, and that's final! When this emergency is over you can see about making yourself leader of the new branch of West Coast Avengers we're planning on having based in Southern California."

"There's going to be another group of Avengers?" Squirrel Girl piped in. "I wanna join! I wanna join!"

"Your enthusiasm is duly noted, Squirrel Girl. Let's see how well you do in this situation. Now, Quasar, full speed ahead."

XXX

"You were out of line, Hawkeye," Captain America admonished as the core group of Avengers flew back towards New York in their quinjet after having defeated with the fifty foot, man eating giant in the Amazon Jungle of Brazil in South America.

"There were better ways of doing things. We could have stopped that giant in more efficient ways," the archer talked back harshly.

"You questioned my orders far too many times, Hawkeye. A group can't have two leaders," Cap responded with a sense of firmness.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"By the beard of Odin!" Thor exclaimed, sitting down after having read a message from the Vision.

"What is it, Thor?" Wanda Maximoff asked.

"Tis seems Validus hath a kind of madness which matches the Hulk."

"What do you mean?" the Scarlet Witch asked, peering over the Thunder God's massive shoulders, reading the whole message.

"Validus hath made an accusation most foul!"

"What has that wannabe done now?" Hawkeye asked, perturbed.

"He hath accused the Submariner of consorting with a group called the Illuminati and sending the Hulk into outer space."

Under his Ironman armor, Tony Stark's face went white. "That's ridiculous. Maybe we shouldn't have made him a reserve Avenger after all. I felt sorry for the guy, but we can't have him making ridiculous accusations."

"Hold it, Tony. When we get back we can hear him out," Cap responded.

"It's hard enough to get Namor to cooperate with us as it is without Rick alienating him. He's gone too far," Ironman said. _"How did Rick know about our secret Illuminati meetings? Are the comic books he read in that other universe that accurate? He's as powerful as the Hulk was. I hope we don't have to send him into outer space too."_

"Hmm. The rest of the Vision's message says that when Rick confronted Namor with the accusation, Namor said he had been against the idea of sending the Hulk into outer space but stopped himself when he had realized what he had said. I really think we should hear him out," Wanda explained.

"Are you OK, Ironman? I can tell you look sick even though you're in your armor," Warbird said in concern.

"I'm all right, Carol. Don't worry about it," the armored Avenger snapped back abruptly.

"Indeed. Validus hath much to answer for," Thor stated, ending the discussion. Warbird took a look at the message. After having read it, she stared into space thoughtfully contemplating the grim news.

XXX

By the time Validus and his group of Avengers had arrived at Death Valley, Ronan the Accuser, a high ranking Kree warrior, was flying next to a giant gorilla which was on its way to Silicon Valley where there were several houses which contained a great deal of computer software and hardware in the making.

"As soon as we land we'll attack Ronan the Accuser and his giant gorilla, but we'll do it as a team. I don't know what he's doing there but I'm certain he's up to no good," the Wasp ordered. "Now here's the plan."

As soon as the quinjet landed and the Avengers left the craft they moved in towards the giant ape and its Kree master. "So Avengers, are you here to stop me? You are welcome to try."

"We will stop you, Ronan; we always do," the shrunken Wasp said as the Avengers moved in. Squirrel Girl, the Wasp and Quasar dealt with Ronan the Accuser while Validus and Moondragon dealt with the giant gorilla.

"I'm trying to calm the creature down but no avail," Moondragon explained as she strained her mental powers.

"How about using your mental powers to free it of Ronan's control?" Validus asked as he flew towards the monster.

Moondragon turned angrily to Validus. "Don't tell me how to do my job, you neophyte!"

"All right. Looks like this is a job for Validus." Rick stepped up and power leaped into the creature, slamming into it with a move through which knocked it back a few feet. Despite all this, the giant gorilla counter attacked the jade hero, striking his body with its huge fist and knocking Validus back several miles, causing him to flip over as he went end over end.

"So much for the high and mighty Validus." While Moondragon was gloating over what seemed like Validus' defeat, the giant gorilla turned towards her and attempted to stomp her into the ground but the bald mentalist proved too nimble for the giant gorilla and got out of the way.

"Moondragon?" a man with blond hair, wearing a red body suit walked over to her a little worse for wear.

"Yes. What is it?"

"I'm the Human Torch. I..."

"I know who you are! Get to the point!"

"How about if we attack him at the same time?"

"That's a good idea," Validus said on his return. "But I'm going to have to stop this thing form stomping any of us into the ground. Huff!" Validus stopped the ape's giant foot in midair and then proceeded to shove his foot in the other direction, setting the primate of balance, knocking him off his feet and on its back. !WOMP!

"Good work! Um."

"I'm called Validus."

"His real name is Rick Jones. He's normally the court jester to the Avengers. How he got the powers of the Hulk and more is beyond me." Then Heather Douglas realized that no one was listening to her, Validus and the Human Torch having decided to engage the giant gorilla in combat, working as a team.

"Hey, I'm talking here! So you think you two can stop that thing? I'll show you!" The beautiful woman breathed in, taking a deep breath and mind blasted the creature with a powerful force of will, knocking it out.

"Why didn't you just do that before?" Validus asked as he and the original Human Torch turned from the downed gorilla towards the beautiful and but bald mentalist.

"I would have done that sooner, but the two of you got in the way," Heather protested much.

"Yeah. Let's see about the others," Validus said as he leaped towards the battle with Ronan the Accuser with the Torch, following him in a fiery trail.

"We're about done fighting Ronan, Rick. Not bad defeating the gorilla. It looks like you're getting the hang of being a super hero," Quasar said as he contained the Kree warrior in a yellow force bubble."

"Thanks, Wendell. But..."

"It was me. I took that thing down. **I **did all of that!" Moondragon exclaimed in indignation, bogarting her way among them.

"I saw what happened, Moondragon," the Wasp said. "But overall it was teamwork despite your lousy attitude. You're gonna have to change that, lady." The bald mentalist looked at the Wasp with hostility but said nothing.

"Do you think you've stopped us? This is just a diversion. Our spies have already taken what we needed from your worthless mudball of a planet. After we've defeated the Skrulls and the Shiar, we'll deal with you!" With that the green armored Kree warrior vanished while the giant gorilla shrank down to normal size.

"My husband and I will examine this gorilla to make sure he doesn't grow large again. I wish I knew what this was that all about?"

"I think I have an idea. But It will be best if I tell everyone at once," Validus explained.

XXX

Sometime later the three groups of Avengers were gathered together in the Avengers Mansion, their missions having been successful. Even Giant-Man was there to examine the gorilla and to hear what Rick had to say. "Now what I want to know is, what's this about my cousin being sent into out of space?" She-Hulk asked out loud, facing Validus.

"You know all about it, don't you, Ironman?"

Ironman shifted a little in his seat. "You're wrong, Rick. I don't know what happened to you in that other universe, but it's obvious your brain has been affected in a bad way. I move we remove Rick from the Avengers including the mascot status he used to have."

"Now I'm sure you had something to do with the Hulk's disappearance. Just to be sure I've spent time tracking him down to no avail; he's not here on this earth. Where did you and the Illuminati send him?"

"We had nothing to do with his disappearance."

"We? Who else had 'nothing to do with his disappearance', Reed Richards, Black Bolt, Namor, Dr. Strange?" Validus shot Namor a look while Namor returned his look with a glare."

"I, uh. Those powers have gone to your head, Rick, giving you delusions of grandeur!" Ironman stated.

"Wait a minute!" She-Hulk interjected. "I know for a fact that you, Namor, know something you're not telling. So what happened?"

"Nothing happened! This Validus person is mad."

"Wrong! You forget I'm a lawyer. So I know when people are lying. You're lying, Ironman. Something's up. Why don't you start from the beginning, Rick?"

"As I said before, Ironman, Dr. Strange, Reed Richards, Blackbolt, Namor and Professor X have created a group called the Illuminati where they make decisions too big for the rest of us. Right after the Kree-Skrull War they showed up on the Skrull home world and threatened them not to attack the Earth anymore but instead they got themselves captured."

Namor had a look of shock on his face which Jennifer took rapt notice of. She was able to notice Ironman fidget nervously too even though she couldn't actually see his face. "What does this have to do with the Hulk being sent into outer space?"

"This is when they started their secret cabal. This helped to lead to the next disaster we're going to have to face. Hopefully the more recent disasters can be avoided."

"What disasters are these, Rick?" Captain America asked.

"For one, Cap, the hero Registration Act, another thing Ironman cooks up."

"That's not true, Rick! You've gone insane!" Ironman stated hotly, pounding the table.

"This Registration Act causes a super hero civil war that gets Cap killed. In fact you end up killing him yourself, Ironman. You end up revealing your identity, Spider-Man, despite the danger to your wife and aunt."

Spider-Man gasped for a moment. "I'd never do that. I'm beginning to think you are nuts too, Rick."

"Well, then," Validus said, looking at everybody. "If talking about this will keep that horrible event from happening then I could live with all of you thinking I'm an idiot. Is it going to happen, Ironman?"

Everyone could see the rage and anger emanating from Ironman despite being covered up in his armor. "I'm not going to listen to any more of this!" With that Ironman left the room.

"You're getting off on a tangent, Rick. All this other stuff is interesting but stick to my cousin," She-Hulk demanded.

"All right. The Illuminati decided to get together in T'Challa's kingdom of Wakanda secretly. T'Challa even expressed some dismay at the secretly held meeting but didn't have any say in what they did. However, for some reason Professor X of the X-Men couldn't make it so what happened wasn't really his fault. There they decided that the Hulk was too dangerous to have around despite the fact that he has helped to save the world numerous times either by accident or deliberately. Namor was against the idea. Isn't right, Namor?"

The Sub-Mariner looked away askance. "If you know so much, you'd know that if something like this had happened we'd all be sworn to secrecy."

"All right. I'll do all the talking then. You were so much in disagreement that you got in a fight with Ironman, almost killing him. Feel free to tell me I'm wrong whenever you like."

She-Hulk took a good look at Namor, deciding he was hiding something. "Go on, Rick."

"But despite all this, you got out voted, Namor. After you left in a huff, the rest of them decided to get rid of Bruce by getting him to go into a rocket ship and sending him off into space where he crash landed onto a hostile planet where he had to fight like a gladiator in order to survive. Eventually he conquered the planet and became king, going so far as to get married with a baby on the way."

"It sound likes he has a happy ending after all," Wanda, the Scarlet Witch said.

"It doesn't end there, Wanda. Someone puts a bomb in the spaceship he arrived on the planet in, killing his wife and unborn child in addition to millions of beings."

"Let me guess. The Hulk survives and gets really pissed off."

"That's right, Hawkeye!"

"That's wrong, Rick! Ironman's right; You are crazy! I thought you had delusions of grandeur, but you've gone far beyond what I would have imagined! Maybe we should throw you out of the Avengers right now!"

"Hold it, Hawkeye. I think Rick's telling us what he believes to be the truth. Even if he might have taken a few hard hits in the universe from which he has come," Captain America explained.

"Is that where you got all your information from, Rick, this other universe?"

"That's right, Spider-Man."

"The fool said something about getting his information from comic books!" Moondragon interjected.

"Really? If that's true you probably know my real identity. Well, what is it?" Spider-Man asked with his arms folded on his chest.

"I don't want to reveal your secret ID in front of everybody here, Spidey, but I will tell you that long before you became Spider-Man you were a nerd, a geek, and a bookworm. Eventually at a science exhibition you were bitten by a radioactive spider which gave you your powers. After you made money beating up that wrestler, you let a criminal escape because you felt you were too good to lower yourself by catching a common thug. Later that thug killed your uncle. After that..."

"All right! All right! Sheesh! I believe you!"

"Does anybody else want to ask me anything?" Validus said, looking around.

"Did you ever read anything about me?" Squirrel Girl piped in enthusiastically.

"A little bit. You helped Ironman defeat Dr. Doom once."

"Now I know you're insane, Validus. There's no way a little girl like this could have helped Ironman against the likes of Dr. Doom," Namor said triumphantly, his arms folded on his chest.

"I did help Ironman defeat Dr. Doom! Tell everyone how I did it, Validus!"

"You had a bunch of squirrels mess up his armor. Doom wasn't prepared for all the squirrels that attacked him in such a manner; thus, he was defeated."

"That's right! You do know what you're talking about!"

"Despite the confirmation from this little girl, I believe thee not!" Thor interjected.

"You don't? How about the fact that you used to turn into Don Blake with a cane?"

"There are few who know that. It matters not."

"How many people know you were Sigurd Jarlson for a period of time? How about that Drago guy from the future? Who also has powers similar to your own? Then there was the time Sif wanted you to leave the Earth forever. This happened right before Beta Ray Bill came on the scene and defeated you, which necessitated him getting a hammer of his own."

"Enough!" Thor exclaimed, pounding the table almost smashing it. "I didst not want the personal details of my life exposed for the world to hear!"

"He's right, isn't he, Thor?" She-Hulk asked, having read Thor's reaction.

"It's obvious you know quite a few things, Rick," Captain America said calmly. "But the accusations you're making are still quite serious and unbelievable. I don't think Ironman and the others you mentioned would do the things you're saying they've done without consulting rest of us."

"Indeed. Thine accusations are refuted by the fact of Ironman's honor. He would never do such a thing nor would the Sub-Mariner!"

"The Sub-Mariner was against the idea! I told you that already! He even warned that the Hulk would eventually come back, and then there would be a horrible reckoning to pay. And he'll be proven correct unless I can find out where Ironman and his self-appointed friends sent the Hulk before it's too late."

"You mean before the bomb goes off?" the She-Hulk asked. "Who set off the bomb?"

"One of the creatures there set the bomb off so as to see the Hulk go berserk, blame the Illuminati who acted dishonorably in the first place and then take it all out on the world, mainly New York. His rage makes him a whole lot stronger than he would normally be, and because he's a king, he has a whole army behind him. I want to keep that from happening. So I need to know where he went to."

"How doth thou plan to get there even if this flight of fancy thou hast created exists?" Thor asked, still not believing the story.

"I can fly all the way there myself. All I would need is a spacesuit of some kind, but I'd rather have a spaceship that would get me there quickly. Time is of the essence right now. So we need to move as quickly as possible!"

"You've said enough, Rick!" Everyone turned to see Ironman carrying a huge gun poised to blast the newly made Hulk into oblivion.

"Ironman put that thing down!" Captain America ordered.

"Not now, Cap. Rick's gone insane, and I have to deal with him. This electrical gun is well capable of taking out the Hulk; it can take you out too, Rick. So you see there was no need to send the Hulk into outer space."

"Hold, Ironman. There is no need to resort to such means. Validus' tales are simply unbelievable. Put the gun down!" Thor ordered.

"You guys don't understand. I have to deal with this now!" As Validus got up from his chair, Ironman immediately blasted him with his huge, bazooka sized, electrical gun.

"Aargh! Don't taze me bro! I didn't do anything!" Rick screamed while in pain.

"Ironman, shut it off!" Cap ordered.

"AAaaaaaagh! Aaaaaaaagh! Grrrrrrrr. Roooarrrrr!" Validus' eyes went wide with rage, his muscles pulsated with power, his visage reminding everyone there of the Hulk!

"You see that? This is why we need to deal with Rick; he's just as dangerous as the Hulk!"

Validus came at Ironman with a burst of speed, but before he could get to him he disappeared. Everybody turned to Thor who had waved his hammer, sending the jade warrior away.

"Where did you send him to, Thor?" She-Hulk asked hotly.

"I sent him to Asgard to cool off."

"Where in Asgard?"

"Where the giants are located. Let him take his wrath out on them."

"What?" Jennifer angrily turned towards Ironman. "What's the big idea, Shellhead?"

"I did what I had to do, Jennifer. Don't question me."

"Or you'll send me into outer space? You've been acting in a guilty manner ever since this subject came up. You're the one who pissed Rick off by blasting him with that electrical gun which really couldn't take out the Hulk but could only get him angry. Was that your plan? It's obvious you couldn't refute what Rick had said. So you reacted by trying to make him look like the bad guy and making him go berserk," Jennifer answered like a lawyer.

"That's not it and you know it!" Ironman snapped back.

"Is it all true, Ironman? Did you really send the Hulk into outer space?" Warbird asked meekly. "It's not as if anybody would blame you for doing that all that much."

"Never mind all that!"

"Thor, send me where you sent Rick."

"Nay. Validus will survive. As soon as he calms down, I'll bring him back here."

"First Ironman sends my cousin into outer space then you send Rick into Asgard. Where am I going to be sent to?" With that She-Hulk stormed out of the room and then out of the mansion.

"Gee, being in the Avengers is really interesting," Squirrel Girl said as everyone in the room looked at her harshly.

XXX

AUTHOR'S NOTES: Stay tuned for the next chapter when Validus makes a new friend, takes on some frost giants and takes on Loki! Now I'd like to thank the people who gave me reviews for the last chapter.

Ashk, Excel, gen x, They call me Bruce, Redzorin, Sir Thames


	8. Adventure in Asgard

Validus

!SOUND EFFECTS! _"THOUGHTS"_

Chapter Eight

"Where am I now?!" Validus screamed still angry over what had happened to him earlier.

"You're in the land of the giants, little man!" a voice boomed from above him. Validus looked up to see a one hundred foot giant looking down on him. He then heard and saw couple more giants, a little smaller than the first. These guys had large foreheads, two rows of teeth, top and bottom and disproportionately large hands and feet with six digits on each. Each one of them carried a large club.

"Just bug off!" Validus answered.

"You think you can talk to us that way little green man?" The first giant walked over to Validus and tried to stomp him into the ground when the green skinned warrior caught the large foot and bounded up into the air, knocking the giant off of his feet.

"What the? You'll pay for that, little man! I'll rip you apart!" As the two other giants ran towards him, Validus leaped upwards, striking each one in the jaw going back and forth. In a matter of seconds both of them went down in a thud.

"Who are you, little green man?" the first giant said, getting up and taking a swing at him while Rick was in the air.

"I'm Validus! Where am I, anyway?"

"You don't know? You're in Asgard! Now die!" the giant bellowed, raising his huge club and using it with a great deal of skill and prowess, enabling him to hit Rick, knocking him to the ground.

"Ungh! Now you've gotten me even angrier!" Before Validus could get up, the giant struck him again with his club again in an arc swing. After toughing out the hit, Validus grabbed the club, taking it away from him and striking the giant hard with his own club, knocking him out with it.

As Validus leaped up into the air and looked around, trying to figure out exactly where he was, powerful beam struck him, knocking him out.

XXX

"What was all of that about, Ironman?" Janet Van Dyne asked the armored avenger.

"Never mind."

"Don't say never mind to me! This isn't the first time you've acted strange. I haven't forgotten the Armor Wars and what you did then."

"This has nothing to do with that! I had to do what I had to do."

"Ironman. Is Rick right after all?" Captain America asked somberly.

"No. I have no idea what he was talking about."

"Namor?"

"I have nothing to say about this, Cap. I rather liked Rick Jones as a court jester instead of what he is now," the Sub-Mariner answered.

"All right. How about bringing Rick back, Thor. He's probably cooled off by now."

"So be it." Thor vanished then came back. "Validus is gone. I know not where he went."

"What? What happened?"

"As I arrived to where I hath sent Validus there were several giants laying around on the ground. These giants were of the largest and most powerful stock. I'm impressed at his valor, but Validus himself was not there."

"He'll turn up. But I want some answers!" Spider-Man said, pointing at Ironman.

"You want answers?" Ironman said calmly.

"Yes, I want answers. I want the truth!"

"You can't handle the..." Ironman stopped for a moment. "Very funny, Spider-Man. Are you trying to ease the tension with your famous sense of humor?"

"I am, but I really want to know what's going on. I say we find out where Validus is and ask him to explain without tazing him, Bro!"

"Don't quit your day job, Spider-Man. Rick's just talking a lot of bull. He's always been a wannabe, and now his dreams have turned into delusions of grandeur," Hawkeye interjected with his arms folded on his chest as he sat down unimpressed with the green giant.

"I don't know anything about a registration, but there's no way I'm going to go along with it. I won't rest until I know for sure what's going on! As it is my spider-sense is giving me warning signs when it comes to you, Ironman. I suspect there's more to Rick's accusation than meets the eye."

As Ironman glared at the webslinger, Quasar piped in. "We ought to go to Asgard and find him before he does any damage. Who knows where he's at?"

"The Asgardians are gone. I know not where they be though I've searched for them. If he hurts anyone it will be the giants some of whom he hath already defeated," Thor answered.

"Ooh! Is it possible Loki or one of your enemies used their magical abilities to transport him somewhere?" Squirrel Girl piped in.

"Tis a possibility." But before Thor could say anything else the alarm rang out.

"There's a huge disaster going on in Denver, Colorado!" a technician who worked inside the Avengers Mansion exclaimed excitedly, barging in on the meeting. "Graviton and some other villains are creating havoc there!"

"We're going to have to check this out. We'll get to Rick later. But for right now, Avengers assemble!" Captain America screamed.

XXX

"Good. Thou art awake," Validus heard a voice say. In addition to that, He found himself unable to move, being held within a mystical energy field that covered him up all around.

"Loki! What are you doing here?"

"Thou art in my castle. Thou shouldst be grateful. Yonder giants would have made a meal out of thee eventually," Loki said, sitting in his chair.

"I was doing pretty well; I really didn't need your help. Now let me out of here, dude!" Validus responded harshly.

"I can't have a berserker rager like thee running around in my castle, can I? So thou wilt be thus restrained for as long as I want thee to be."

"I'll escape, Loki. And when I do..."

"Thou wilt do nothing! I know thou art really Rick Jones infused with the powers of the Hulk and some others. As it is, thou wilt be useful in my plans to bring Thor to heal."

"If you expect me to help you beat Thor, you can forget it. I won't help you despite the fact that he sent me here!"

"Thou wilt help me whether thou wilst or not. What was all that gobbledygook thou were talking about before Thor sent thee here?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"I heard all of it, but I don't really care. Thou art nothing but a useful idiot to me now. As soon as I'm done using my magicks to exert my control over thee, making thee my slave along with the others I have here, I'll not only rule Asgard but Midgard**(1)** as well."

"Who else is here?" Validus asked.

"I'm here! Are you really Rick Jones?"

Validus turned to his left to see, "Wonder-Man! How did you get here?"

"He was simply a mass of energy which appeared at the whim of the Scarlet Witch. He would have reformed himself into a solid person eventually, but I hastened the process and brought him here."

"It's nice to see you again, Rick."

Validus looked further to his left to see a beautiful woman with long blond hair, ice blue eyes and milky white skin. Her rock hard, curvaceous body was fit, firm, and muscular, standing at a statuesque height of six feet tall, weighing a well built 150 pounds with an even more busty figure than before, her measurements being 40-26-38. She wore a skin tight dark blue tunic with a large red and yellow S insignia on her impressive bosom. In addition to that she sported a red skirt, cape and boots.

"Kara! How did you get here?"

"It's a long story, Rick. I was on a mission with the Legion of Super Heroes."

"I thought you didn't have the ability to travel in time anymore."

"You mean like that other Supergirl? I didn't; I never did. On a mission for the Justice League, some of us were transported into the future where I met and fell in love with Brainiac 5, so I stayed in the future while the others returned home. I guess I have a fetish for gorgeously green skinned guys."

Validus blushed a little for a moment. "It's great seeing you again but how did you get here?"

"The Legion of Super Heroes went up against the Time Trapper. During that battle Brainiac Five died. I was so upset that I decided to sacrifice myself in order to save the team which I did. But instead of dying when the Time Trapper blasted my atoms apart with his continuum control energy, my atoms reformed. Unable to get back into the universe from which I came I ended up here. After fighting some dark elves and trolls Loki surprised me and kept on blasting me until I slipped into unconsciousness. Then he transported me here in his castle. He's been trying to use mind control on me ever since, but I've kept on resisting. From what I remember you telling me, Loki's a bad guy of epic proportions. What he's put me through has proved this to be true. But there's no way I'm going to give in to this guy's control."

"That is what thou thinkest, wench. I will break thee soon enough. In time all three of thee will be under my control. Eventually I will control all of the Avengers including my half-brother, Thor and all the other so called super heroes of the Earth. Wherefore I will not screw it up the way Morgan Le Fey did."

"Never!" Supergirl exclaimed.

"Think again, girl." Loki snapped his fingers which magically created a chain reaction that caused the stasis field Kara was in to shift which caused her great pain.

"Aieeeeeeee!"

"Stop it, Loki!" Validus screamed.

"Thou art not in any position to be giving me orders, you jester and clown!" Loki said with cold contempt. "Thou art nothing but a fool who got lucky. But thy luck hath run out."

"Jester? You know what I learned in that other universe while I was reading comic books, Loki?"

"What was that?"

"No matter what happened you always got your ass kicked by Thor. There was even the time you allied yourself with Dormammu. He robbed you blind, didn't he?" Validus commented with a wry smile.

"You dare bring that to my remembrance?" Loki snapped his fingers again, causing Rick to feel the same kind of pain Kara was feeling except he was getting more and more angry which was making him a whole lot stronger!

"Yeaargh! Aaarrrgh! Grrrrrr! AARRRRGGG!"

"Thou makest aspirations on my defeats when thou art one of the biggest fools I've ever seen. No one believes anything thou hast to say. Every Midgard hero including Thor despises thee and on top of that thou canst even get out of some simple mystic bonds" Validus continued to cry out in pain, almost beginning to growl. "See I'll break thee will sooner than the wench or Wonder-Man."

"Wrong! I hate it when people put me down like that!" Validus screamed, rage and strength increasing to incalculable levels as his eyes began to look like the Hulk's when he got angry, something Wonder-Man noticed with more than a little bit of dismay.

"And what wilt thou do about it? The energy field thou art in wouldst hold either Thor or the Hulk. Wherefore I've seen to it. A fool like thee wouldst never be able to get out of it. But I'll let thee out as soon as my control over thee is certain."

"Wait a minute!" Supergirl interjected.

"What is it, wench?" Loki spoke harshly, hating to be interrupted.

"Didn't you think to yourself once that the Hulk would be too hard to control because of his rage? That's why you chose that silver guy on the surf board to trick into fighting Thor instead of the Hulk," Supergirl explained.

"How dost thou know about all that, girl? What kind of mind reader art thou? Bah. It matters not. Validus as Rick Jones likes to call himself is about to come to heel under my control."

Validus then began to use his quick relfexes along with his rage enhanced strength. !CRACK!SMASH! "What the? That's impossible! There's no way thou could have broken free! The energy field regenerates as soon as it's broken. What magic hath thou wroth?"

"I'm a lot faster than the Hulk or even Thor for that matter. This allows me to make many more efforts, breaking out of your stasis field before it can heal itself! You've also made me really angry. And to tell the truth, you won't like me when I'm angry."

"It matters not if thou art free. There's no way thou canst stand up to my magicks. I am Loki; therefore I am all powerful!"

"So what? I've fought magic users before!" Validus said, avoiding some eldritch blasts from Loki. Eventually Validus came straight at his magical opponent, letting himself get hit with the Asgardian's energy attacks in order to engage him in hand to hand, striking him with countless punch and kick combinations which rocked the mage back.

"This is inconceivable! Thou art nothing but a fool, a buffoon!"

"You're just pissing me off!" Rick said as his strength increased even more. Soon he had Loki up against the wall, giving him a brutal beating, easily getting damage past Loki's mystic shields until the arch mage's shield began to waver.

Rick staggered back as Loki attacked with an area encompassing attack which started small but increased in size in the shape of an ice cream cone as it got further and further away from his mystical hands. "I don't care who thou art! Thou cannot hope to defeat Loki the Prince of Evil. Aaaaaaah!" Loki screamed, using his magic to increase his physical abilities. "Now thou wilt see how powerful I really am. Thus I'll be able to engage even thee in hand to hand combat!"

"Bring it on!" Validus came, running at the trickster who in turn came at him. Both warriors went at it fighting in a DragonballZ manner with hundreds of blows going back and forth. However, Validus was more skilled in hand to hand combat, finding more openings, and a whole lot faster, getting more punches and kicks through. Eventually Rick struck him with a right cross, knocking the sorcerer down.

"I don't believe the fighting prowess thou hast! No matter. No matter, no. I cannot be defeated."

"Oh, yeah?" Validus stomped on the ground, creating a well-aimed shockwave that struck the downed Asgardian, sending him up into the air. Then the emerald gladiator immediately power leaped towards Loki at an uncanny speed, striking him with several rapid fire strikes using both his hands and feet until he finally knocked the trickster out.

"Whew! That was a great fight!"

"Hey, Rick! How about breaking us out of here?" Wonder-Man called out.

"Yeah. All right. Just give me a moment."

"I think I can help," Supergirl said as she vibrated at super speed and used her impressive strength to break both Wonder-Man and herself free out of the stasis field both of them were in, shattering it.

"Why didn't you do that sooner? And aren't you vulnerable to magic?" Validus asked.

"Well, I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is magic works differently in this universe so magical attacks don't hurt me any more than other attacks would. However, since Loki's so powerful, the surprise attack with which he nailed me was able to knock me out cold in my weakened state after the battle with the Time Trapper."

"What's the bad news?"

"The bad news is I'm a lot weaker here. I found that out when I tried to pick a mountain up. I wasn't able to move it even though I didn't really feel any weaker."

"That's not a real problem, Kara. Do you remember how shocked I was when I was able to lift so much weight from before?"

"Yes, I do. Are you weaker here too?"

"Pretty much everybody here is. The strongest heroes here normally peak out at about 100 tons. Only a scant few can lift a little more than that. Heck, Wonder-Man here can only lift 90 tons."

"Don't be so sure of that," Wonder-Man interjected strongly.

"Anyway." Validus continued to speak as if Wonder-Man hadn't interrupted. "How were you able to break out just now?"

"I tried to break us out earlier, but as soon as you defeated Loki I was able to free myself and Wonder-Man here. But I couldn't have done it without you, Rick," the young woman said, affectionately putting her arms around Rick's neck and looking up at him. "By the way, I'm in my early twenties now, so I'm more mature than you remember."

"I'll say," Rick said noticing her womanly attributes.

"Thou hast done well, Validus. Mayhap thou art a great warrior after all."

All of them turned to see Thor standing there, having watched the battle.

XXX

Sometime later, several Avengers were gathered again in the main meeting room where they were engaged in the same conversation they had from before. Captain America, She-Hulk, Hawkeye, Ironman and some of the other Avengers were sitting down, having heard what happened to Rick while he was in Asgard with Thor informing everyone one there on the impressive fighting ability of Validus.

"It's great to have you back, Simon," Hawkeye stated patting Wonder-Man on the back. "Even if Rick's the one who brought you back."

"It's great to be back, but Rick really did save the day. He broke out the restraints and defeated Loki..."

"Yeah! Yeah! We heard all that. You'll change your tune as soon as you hear what Rick's been saying."

Eventually the Scarlet Witch walked up to Wonder-Man and put her arms around him. "It's great to have you back, Simon. I've really missed you since that time against Morgan Le Fey."

"It's great seeing you too, Wanda." Wonder-Man now had a new version of his uniform on him as he held his lover tightly. "Even this Helen Slater wannabe did a good job."

"Helen Slater? Oh, that's right. She's the lady who played me in a movie. I'll have to go see that sometime."

"Are you the Supergirl Rick knew in that other universe?" Vance Astrovik also known as Justice said, not taking his eyes off of the strikingly beautiful, statuesque, young woman much to the chagrin of his girlfriend, Firestar.

"Yes. That's right. But I'm the post-crisis Supergirl as opposed to the pre-crisis Supergirl. Right, Rick?" Supergirl commented, happily putting her arms around Validus and looking into his eyes dreamily.

"Yeah, that's right," Rick answered, holding the beautiful woman in his arms while the other Avengers looked on, staring at the Maid of Steel in shock for a moment. Then things got serious.

"I don't mean to keep you from getting some, Rick, but I want you to further explain what happened to my cousin," She-Hulk demanded.

"Oh, yeah. That's right! Where did you send him, Ironman?" Validus interrogated, pointing at him in an accusatory manner.

"I've had it with your ridiculous accusations!"

"How about if I go visit Reed Richards or Dr. Strange? Would they know?"

"Going to any of them would be pointless; they wouldn't know what you were talking about either."

"Wasn't Reed the one who created the ship that sent Bruce away? I'm not looking for revenge. I just need to know where you sent him, so I can find him before that bomb blows up his wife and kid. Now tell me where you sent him!"

"You've only been an Avenger for a short period of time, and you got the gall to give me orders?"

"If you really care about the earth, you'll tell me where you sent him. I have no idea how much time we have. For all we know Bruce and the Warbound could be on their way here now!"

"Where did you send him, Ironman?" the jade giantess asked.

"Don't tell me you believe this guy, Jen."

"I do believe him. What's more, I don't have to be a professional lawyer to know you've been acting like someone who's guilty all along, Ironman. Where is he?"

"You're nuts too, Jen."

"Careful, Jen. He's already cooking up a way to end your life as She-Hulk."

"What do you mean, Rick?"

"He knew you'd be pissed off as soon as you found out about your cousin, so he has cooked up a way to deal with you. I don't know whether or not he's done it already. But by the time Bruce comes back he'll be ready."

Ironman looked at Validus with so much rage and anger that it was visible to everyone there. "I've had enough!" Ironman screamed, pounding the table in a rage.

"Ironman, **you have** been acting strangely. I'm beginning to believe Rick's story. The appearance of this Supergirl in the flesh even though she's a comic book character helps to prove that," Captain America said calmly. "As it is you have been evasive ever since Rick brought up the subject of the Hulk.

"Everybody knows you've confused Rick with your long dead partner, Bucky, for whom you've been feeling guilty about ever since you've gotten out of that iceberg, Cap. So maybe you should back out of this discussion," Ironman said, giving Cap a sideward glance.

"You're out of line, Ironman! What did you do?" Captain America said with a great deal of emotion.

"We did what had to do. The Hulk was dangerous!" Ironman covered his armored mouth after he realized what he had just said.

"You care to finish that?" She-Hulk asked with her arms folded on her chest.

"I, um."

"I'll finish it," Wanda explained in a matter-of-fact manner. "I used my probability powers in order to make the truth come out. Rick's story hasn't changed since I've been doing that. You, Ironman, just blurted that you had to do something and that the Hulk was dangerous. You should just tell us what's going on."

Everyone in the room looked at armored Avenger for a moment. "You had no right to do that, Wanda!"

"I knew it! You had no right to send my cousin into outer space! Where did you send him?!" She-Hulk screamed in a rage.

"Shut up, Jen!" Then Ironman turned towards Validus. "Rick, you have a big mouth! You've ruined several of our plans already!" Ironman stated.

"You sound like some of the arch super villains I've fought in the past, Ironman," Validus said in response.

"How many villains have you fought, Rick? You've only been a super hero for a short time!" the armored Avenger snapped back.

"Hold, Ironman. Validus hath defeated Loki in one on one combat. His valor is unquestionable," Thor interjected.

Ironman stopped for a moment. "Maybe his valor is good, but his mouth is another matter all together. So what if you got lucky against Loki? Big deal. You couldn't handle the other villains we've faced."

"Wrong! I told you I was a superhero in the other universe I was in. I got a lot of experience while I was there working with Superman and the rest of the Justice League."

"You still expect us to believe that?"

"It's true!" Supergirl interjected. "He's helped my cousin, Superman and me lots of times! He's as good a superhero as any of you! He's saved all of your lives as well as the lives of some of the heroes in the universe I come from. And this is how you treat him? No wonder the people of this world don't like superheroes that much."

"Nobody's talking to you, girl. So shut up!" Ironman ordered. "I don't know what the color of the sky is in your world, but maybe you should go back there."

"I can't go back there. A rift was created and I was sent through it. I was 'killed' in the future in my original universe. So I'm stuck here," Supergirl explained.

"Was Superman real?" Firestar asked.

"As real as I am. I miss him, but I'll be all right."

"Who was he, Christopher Reeves?" Hawkeye said disbelievingly.

"Christopher Reeves? He was in a few movies, but he wasn't that great of an actor. There's no way I could see him playing my cousin, Superman," Supergirl said, not knowing he had in fact played Superman.

"You talk like Superman is real. He's just a comic book character, and so are you! I don't know how much you're paying this chick, Rick, but I'm not falling for any of this," Hawkeye interjected.

"Fine, Hawkeye. Don't believe her then. I'm not gonna stick around here and argue with you over it. I think I can figure out where Ironman and his friends sent the Hulk. I'm gonna go see if I can find the area. I can track Bruce down from there." That being said, Validus walked out of the room with Kara following after him as he prepared to fly off.

"Rick, wait!" Jennifer called out to him. "Don't go yet. Take me with you!"

"I can take you with me when I go to where the rocket ship left, but I don't know what will happen after that."

"I'll go with you, Rick," the gorgeous blond said, standing next to him.

"Don't you want to figure out how to get back to your own universe?"

"I told you it's impossible for me to go back, Rick and I meant it. The Time Trapper used a great deal of power to create a rift in time and space, attempting to send all of the Legion through it. As soon as he sent me through it and blasted me into dust as he closed that rift. The only way I survived was to take what was left of me and go through that rift. After arriving in Asgard I was barely able to survive, but because the sun there is so powerful and bright I recovered very quickly. Eventually I dealt with Loki and lost. But as it is I can't go back. So you're stuck with me, green, dark, and handsome."

"I guess you remembered how the superheroes here aren't as popular as they are in the DC universe," Validus stated as he regarded the gorgeous blond, standing in front of him.

"Why did you keep calling it the DC universe? Oh, yes, I remember. I read several issues of comic books from the **Marvel Universe **when I was in the present and when I was in the Legion of Super Heroes. I found your world interesting despite the ridiculous and horrible way mutants are treated here."

"You sure have my respect now, Supergirl. And you're a lot better looking than Laura Vandervoort too," Squirrel Girl said, walking up to them. "Let's see about helping the Hulk."

"You actually believe me?" Validus asked in surprise.

Before the fuzzy chick could answer a voice called out. "I do now," Moondragon said. "You aren't the fool I thought you to be, Validus. I read Ironman's mind so I know exactly where the Hulk went off to. Let's take one of those spaceworthy crafts and go. I'd like to avoid the disaster you said might happen." Moondragon smiled at Validus sweetly as she gave Kara a jealous glare but said no more.

"We'll come along too." Quasar and the original Human Torch had also left the mansion and were ready to go on this new adventure.

"It's great to have all you guys aboard," Rick said happily.

"I don't believe this," Hawkeye interjected, appearing in the midst of them.

"No one invited you, Hawkeye!" Rick stated hotly.

"Well, I'm inviting myself. You people need someone who can lead just in case there are problems. If everything you said is true, Rick, I'll apologize to you myself. Now let's see about getting a spacecraft and going after the Hulk."

XXX

**(1)** Midgard is earth.

AUTHOR'S NOTES: Now I'd like to thank the people who gave me reviews for the last chapter.

Ashk, Ywen, gen x, Excel, They call me Bruce, Redzorin, Sir Thames


	9. Planet Hulk

Validus

!SOUND EFFECTS! _"THOUGHTS"_

Chapter Nine

"Avengers Assemble!" Hawkeye called out as he and the Avengers with him ran towards the docking bay in the back of the mansion.

"What's that noise?" Captain America said as he heard the sound of engines.

"It's our interstellar spacecraft. Who's taking off with it?" Ironman exclaimed.

Then they heard a radio transmission. "Hey, guys! This is Hawkeye here! I'm leading a team of Avengers to where the Hulk might be located. We'll let you know what happened."

"What? I thought you didn't believe Rick, Clint!" Ironman said through the comm link.

"I'm not so sure if he's right or not. But I'm gonna see this through. These guys were gonna go off and search for the Hulk anyway and since they needed someone to lead them I volunteered myself."

"You can't do that! We haven't finished discussing this yet!" Ironman screamed.

"Hey, don't worry about it, Shellhead. We'll be back before you know it." With that Hawkeye's group of Avengers were gone.

"I don't believe it!" Ironman exclaimed as he saw the spacecraft fly off into the deep space as he viewed it from the monitor in the main meeting room.

"What is it, Ironman?" Cap asked.

"How did he know where that spacecraft was? That spaceworthy quinjet has a tracker which can..."

"Which can what?" Wanda, the Scarlet Witch, asked.

Ironman angrily turned towards the scarlet garbed woman only to notice everybody in the room staring at him.

"It's time you told us the truth, Tony. Rick was right, wasn't he?" Captain America asked gravely.

"Um."

"Thou didst not!" Thor exclaimed in surprise.

"If Rick comes back with proof..."

"All right, Cap. It's true. I swore to keep it a secret along with the others, but there's no point now since Rick has spilled the beans."

"You mean it's all true?" Spider-Man exclaimed in surprise. "What have you done?"

"If that's true we should send another group to back them up in case they fail," the Wasp commented.

"Hawkeye's group took off in the only space worthy operational quinjet we have right now. It will take a couple of hours to get another one operational in order to take off after them," Ironman explained dourly.

"Why did you do it, Ironman?" Cap asked.

"You know what kind of menace the Hulk was, Cap. We had to do something."

"You should have consulted us."

"So we could spend a lot of time just talking about it? It wouldn't have worked if the Hulk knew about it. The Hulk took on a rogue Shield satellite that had somehow developed a mind of its own. After the Hulk defeated the satellite, we took control of the ship he was on."

"You had control of that ship the whole time, didn't you?" Spider-Man asked.

"Yes, we did."

"How could you do all that?" Wanda asked in shock and surprise. "What will we do if the Hulk does come back to destroy us all? And what's this about a registration?"

"I've been talking to the new director of Shield and some others about registering everyone with super powers. We were only talking about it at this point."

"Rick said something about you killing me; would you do that for this registration? I'll tell you the truth. I would be against something like that."

"I can't imagine doing something like that, Cap. The only one I wanted to kill was Rick himself, but I'm over that now."

"How about all those Illuminati meetings you and the others have held in secret?" the Wasp asked, narrowing her eyes at the armored Avenger.

"I'm not talking about that. You know way too much already."

"I'll have to ask Reed Richards and Professor Xavier about it the next time I see them," Spider-Man said.

"I don't think that will be a good idea. We may have to..."

"You will have to **include** the rest of us in your secret meetings next time, Ironman!" the Wasp interrupted.

"Indeed. Thou and thy friends hath much to answer for," Thor announced.

"What is it, Tony? You look as if you were just contacted," Captain America said, regarding Ironman.

"It's nothing, just a quirk in my armor I need to look into. I'll be right back."

XXX

"All right. We're almost there. I can practically sense Bruce's presence," Validus explained to the others while he piloted the spaceworthy quinjet through outer space on his way to where his tracking skills led him.

"I just don't believe how competent Rick is when it comes to piloting spacecraft. But when did he get the ability to track people down?" Hawkeye asked in surprise.

"He must have gotten that ability from Dawnstar when he absorbed the powers of her and the other members of the Legion of Super Heroes," Supergirl answered.

"Who?"

"It's a long story, Bullseye."

"That's Hawkeye! Besides looking like a cartoon character, what can actually you do?"

"I have super strength, super speed, invulnerability, X-ray vision, heat vision and some other powers. What more do you need to know?" Supergirl asked the archer with her arms folded on her impressive chest.

"Let me guess. You can bend steel with your bare hands. You're faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive. You can leap tall buildings in a single bound. You're a bird; you're a plane..."

"I'm not a bird or a plane, all right? I can do the other things you mentioned though."

_"Rick has all the luck. Supergirl is simply gorgeous!" _Quasar thought to himself as he stole a few looks at the maid of steel. _"And to think I had a crush on Supergirl while I was growing up, reading her comic books whenever I had the chance. I've had so many fantasies and dreams about Supergirl when I was a teenager that I can barely get over the fact that she's here in the flesh just a few feet from me. I can tell she's into Rick big time. I'm just going to have to control myself. But that will be difficult. In addition to being strikingly beautiful and sexy, she has a more charismatic personality than I would have imagined!"_

"So you like Rick a lot, eh Supergirl?" She-Hulk said with a coy look in Supergirl's direction. "How far have you gotten with him? And don't leave any of the juicy details."

"Not as far as I would have liked, She-Hulk. Even though I was nineteen, Rick saw me as a child. However," Supergirl said, making a sexy pose as she clasped her hands behind head. "Now that I'm older and a lot more mature; that won't be a problem."

"You've just met him and you plan on sleeping with him?" Moondragon asked incredulously, more than a little jealous of the impressive physique, beautiful countenance, and presence Supergirl exuded.

"I've known him for quite a while now. So you're mistaken, miss."

"Despite appearances you still know nothing about love," Moondragon said in an imperious manner.

"You're beginning to remind me of Luthor," Supergirl said to the beautiful, bald woman who frowned back at her.

"I don't know where to go from here. This is where the trail ends!" Rick said from the front of the quinjet.

"That's because the Hulk's flew into an intergalactic wormhole which sent him to another planet instead of the planet Ironman and Reed Richards intended him to go to," a voice from within the quinjet said. All the heroes inside the craft turned around to see a medium sized Asian-American teenager, dressed in a red shirt and blue jeans. He also wore a brown jacket out of which a pint sized dog peaked out.

"Who are you and how did you get in here?" Hawkeye demanded to know.

"It's that Beethoven kid!" Supergirl exclaimed.

"Wrong, Supergirl. Close but wrong. I'm Amadeus Cho. And I know exactly where the Hulk is."

"How did you get in here without setting off any of the alarms?"

"Your security was pretty good, but I'm one of the smartest people on the planet, smarter than either Tony Stark or Reed Richards. I had the Avengers Mansion bugged ever since I noticed the presence of Validus also known as Rick Jones." Amadeus walked over to the pilot's seat right behind Rick. "I've already figured out where the Hulk went off to."

"What? I don't know what you think you're doing here, kid, but I'm not going to listen to some wet behind the ears teenager," Quasar said over his shoulder from the copilot's seat as the teenage boy made his way to the cockpit.

"If you want to find the Hulk before his wife and kid dies I suggest you do as I say," Amadeus demanded.

"Who are you, kid?" Rick asked, surprised to see a somewhat familiar face.

At that moment, Supergirl got up from her seat and walked into the cockpit. "Rick! This kid is Amadeus Cho."

"Him? You gotta be kidding me!"

Then the teenage boy turned towards the emerald gladiator. "She's not kidding, Rick. If the comic books you read in that other universe were accurate you know full well who I am. Don't you remember how I befriended the Hulk while he was Bruce Banner at that restaurant where the turnovers went all over the place?"

"Yeah. I guess I hadn't thought of you all that much. But I'm surprised you believe I was in another universe," Rick replied.

"I said I had the Avengers Mansion bugged. So it's not as if you were lying to me. And your information was too accurate to ignore even if you had forgotten about me until I just reminded you. And the appearance of Supergirl here who looks a whole lot better than Laura Vandervoort ever did, almost knowing who I am clinches it. I know you want to help the Hulk. Well so do I. I know for a fact that Reed Richards screwed up when he took over the SHIELD spacecraft the Hulk was in when Bruce saved the whole world from that Godseye Satellite. Reed's search logarithms were horribly off, so the Hulk didn't go where Reed and his friends had intended. He went to another planet instead."

"How do you know where that planet is?"

"When you had that argument with Ironman over whether or not he and his friends sent the Hulk into outer space I figured you were going to try to find him, so I decided to make sure you could do just that. You won't be able to find him without me. Here are the coordinates."

"I don't know about this," Hawkeye said.

"If you don't want to go, I'll get the coordinates from Cho and fly there myself," Validus said with a sense of purpose.

"You're not alone, Rick. I'll fly with you. We have to find the Hulk before he destroys New York over the death of his wife and child," Supergirl interjected.

"We're all going and that's final!" She-Hulk said, putting her foot down.

"All right. Go ahead and take the coordinates, Quasar," Hawkeye ordered.

"Here let me do it," Amadeus said, giving the navigation computer the coordinates. "We don't have much time to lose! For all we know we're already too late!"

A few minutes later the passengers of the spaceworthy quinjet were impressed by a ghastly sight. "That's an intergalactic wormhole!" Quasar exclaimed as he regarded the view.

"Yes. We'll get there faster that way. That's how the Hulk got to the different planet. Intergalactic wormholes move around sometimes."

"Just in case, I'll put up a force field around the spacecraft. If memory serves me right, this will lead us straight to Sakaar. I hope the Hulk didn't land there."

"He did land there," Validus interjected. "He started up as a gladiator and ended up as king."

"Gee, that sounds like something out of Conan the Barbarian, Rick," She-Hulk interjected.

"You have no idea how right you are, Jen. I only hope we can get there in time."

"That's the planet, Sakaar, up ahead all right," Quasar announced as they passed through the wormhole.

"Where can we land safely, Wendell?" Hawkeye asked.

"I'm guessing a couple miles from the main city. If we land too far away from civilization we can run into creatures none of you have ever seen before or want to see at all," Rick interjected, giving everybody a serious look.

"I've been in this area of the galaxy before, Rick. That's why I feared even having to be here. We better all stay together. There are spiky protoplasms that do horrible things to whomever they encounter."

"Yeah. I remember reading about them. Didn't the Hulk make a deal with them, placating them?" Supergirl asked.

"We don't know at what point we're getting here, Kara. So we'll have to be careful. Before we leave the quinjet we better tell everybody here what kinds of species live here," Validus said as he proceeded to tell everyone about the dominant pink skinned Imperials who ran the place, the Shadow People, a race of grey skinned, tall nomadic humanoids who mostly lived in the desert, the Kronans who were tall and rock like and finally the natives, bug like creatures who were almost as tall as people. Then he explained the other creatures the current group of Avengers could encounter.

XXX

"What do you mean, the Avengers know about our secret meetings?" Reed said in shock and surprise. "How could Rick have known about this?"

"He said he was in another universe where all of us super heroes were comic book characters. He supposedly read about us and what we did and planned in comic books."

"I know all about various different alternate universes. But that's very unlikely."

"It would be unlikely but not impossible. A few years ago the Avengers were transported to an alternate universe where there were no super beings of any kind and we **were** comic book characters."

"Hmm. Did Rick say which universe he was in?"

"Yes. I don't know if you've ever heard of Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, and the Justice League, but that's the universe Rick said he was in."

"You mean he was in a universe where those cartoon characters were real? I find that hard to believe."

"It's not just that. Supergirl managed to get herself trapped in our universe."

"Are you kidding me?"

"No. I actually saw her. I secretly analyzed this Supergirl while she was in our meeting room."

"What did you find, Tony?"

"She has all the powers the fictional Supergirl is purported to have except she's not strong enough to move the earth as her strength level is a little less than Thor's is."

"Hmm. Is she as heroic as the comics make her out to be?"

"As far as I know she is. Rick says he worked with her and her cousin, Superman, while in that other universe. I suspect she's in love with him. She went off with him and the others. You may get to see her later assuming Rick and the others make it back."

"Come back from where?"

"They're looking for the Hulk."

"What?"

"You heard right. Rick believes a bomb will go off in the ship in which we sent the Hulk away, causing the Hulk to go berserk and blame us, coming back here for revenge."

"We never put a bomb on that ship! And how could he come back? The planet to which we sent him was uninhabited."

"Rick said there were people on the planet we sent him to. He thinks the Hulk got married and sired a kid."

"He's crazy!" Reed Richards exclaimed. "Wait. Who else went with him? Surely the Avengers didn't believe a word of what he said."

"Jennifer, being a lawyer, figured out Rick was telling the truth. Then she accused me of lying. The other Avengers weren't sure if I was lying or not. But eventually Captain America was convinced of Rick's honesty along with the others."

"How much do the Avengers know, Tony?"

"We know a lot!" Ironman turned around to see Captain America standing there along with the shrunken Wasp on his shoulder.

"What the? How did you get in here? I had that door locked!"

"You know all about Wanda's probability powers, Tony. When Rick and the others return **all of us **will discuss what is and isn't true. That includes you as well, Reed Richards."

"I still don't believe you did all of that, Ironman!" the Wasp said, jumping off of Cap's shoulder, growing back to normal size, and getting in Ironman's face.

"Indeed, Ironman. Thou hast much to answer for!" Thor announced, walking in the room along with the Scarlet Witch and Spider-Man.

"And you can forget about any registration! None of us are going along with that either!" Spider-Man exclaimed.

XXX

"I'm taking her down," Validus said after observing the landscape and finding a safe level place to land. As soon as the Avengers got out, they looked around to see people working, cleaning the damage from what looked to have been the aftermath of a big fight.

Supergirl turned quickly when her super hearing picked something up. "Time and again your anger and power has threatened the entire planet. It's the only way we can be sure. I'm really sorry, Bruce."

**"WARNING! WARP CORE COMPROMISED!" **The maid of steel then used her vision powers to locate the origin of what she heard.

"I've spotted the ship the Hulk came in. It's beeping. It's gonna blow!"

"Beeping? I can't hear a thing!" Hawkeye exclaimed.

"She has super hearing, Hawkeye," Quasar replied.

"That's right! We have to move fast. Lead the way, Kara!" Validus said as he bounded after the fast flying Maid of Steel to the ship with Wendell following them.

"Let's follow them!" She-Hulk said as she leaped towards the three pursuing heroes."

"I agree. Avengers assemble!" Hawkeye called out as he led the team towards the leading heroes.

Squirrel Girl had screamed the battle cry along with the others with a sense of pride and determination as she sped off ahead of the others, catching up to the first group of heroes. _"This is so exciting. I knew the Avengers went on great adventures!"_

The Hulk and his gray skinned wife barely noticed some blurs fly towards the spacecraft. "Who the F# are they?"

"We got to get this thing as far away as possible!" Validus exclaimed.

"Just throw it as far as you can, Rick. I'll use my quantum power to contain it!" Quasar said.

"Right! Aaaarrrrgggggggghhhhhhhh!" Validus screamed, pumping himself up with adrenaline, increasing his strength tenfold! He then grabbed the ship and threw it high in the sky, several miles up.

"That's it, Rick!" Quasar then created a quantum field, covering it up with all of his power, containing it with an energy field. A second later the craft exploded with so much power Wendell passed out from the strain of having his quantum field so violently destroyed. As great as the explosion was, nobody was hurt.

"Everybody take cover! Hawkeye ordered before the explosion died down.

"You think they made it?" the Human Torch asked, looking into the sky.

"I don't sense the death of anyone due to the explosion," Moondragon explained.

"It worked!" Amadeus Cho exclaimed, using his viewing equipment which looked similar to a pair of binoculars. "I saw the whole thing! Everything is going to be OK! Way to go, Validus! You've proven yourself today!"

Several feet away stood Miek, a giant sized bug and the Brood who had crash landed on Sakaar months earlier with her Brood sisters, having survived them, being the only one left of her people. "Nooooo! !KIK!" Miek screamed as he saw the spacecraft explode harmlessly in the sky. "Noooo!"

"Don't feeeeeel sssssooo bad about it, Miek. We'll think of ssssomething elsssse."

"What else?" The insectoid and the Brood turned to see Supergirl standing there, her cape billowing in the wind as she regarded them sharply. Squirrel Girl had scampered right behind her at super speed, standing with the girl of steel.

"Yeah! Tell us what happened!" Squirrel Girl demanded.

"Who are you to question us, !KIK! Furball?"

"Furball?"

Supergirl spoke up again. "You guys set up the reactor core to go off, didn't you?"

"No. It wasssss you. You who ssssent the Hulk here to banish him. You wanted him desssstroyed," the Brood answered, her sharp teeth bared.

"I just got here. I know you did it! I'm bringing you both in."

"Hold!" The four turned to see Korg, the man of living stone and Hiroim the shamed, grey skinned shadow warrior, coming towards them.

"Why were you screaming just now, Miek?" the shadow warrior asked, regarding him.

Miek immediately caught himself. "Um. I just don't believe this puny human. I'm sure the bomb killed everyone." Miek then glared at Amadeus Cho and the group of Avengers who had caught up with the girl of steel and the fuzzy chick, Validus carrying the barely conscious Quasar.

!WUMP! "I want to know what's going on. And I want to know now!" the Hulk demanded as he landed in front of the group.

XXX

A while later the current group of Avengers and the Hulk's main Warbound were having a discussion in the main meeting area of the palace. During this time, Rick explained everything that had happened from when the Leader had kidnapped his wife, Marlo and him to when he and the current group of Avengers had arrived on his planet of Sakaar, stopping the bomb from killing everyone.

"I still find it hard to believe you read a comic book in another universe and found out what was going to happen, but it's not entirely impossible. I'm glad you destroyed the Leader's machine before he could do anything else with it. And I'm glad you and your girlfriend were able to stop that bomb from killing my new family," the Hulk said as he gave a loving look at his new wife, Caiera the Oldstrong who smiled back at him.

"I'm just happy we got here in time," Validus said relieved.

As the Hulk looked over the group of Avengers he noticed a familiar face. "It's a good thing I don't see Ironman here. But I'm surprised to see you here, kid," the Hulk said to Amadeus Cho. "Why are you here?"

"They couldn't have found you without me despite Rick's best efforts."

"You actually talked the Avengers into taking you with them?"

"No. I bugged the Avengers Mansion and stowed away on their spacecraft when they took off for your planet."

"How did all of you know where I was unless Ironman or Reed Richards and the others told you?"

"Ironman didn't say anything about it without a lot of prodding. Rick's the one who knew what was going to happen. He was in another universe where he met Supergirl over there," She-Hulk said with a wink.

The Hulk took a good look at Supergirl who smiled sweetly back at him. Then he regarded Validus. "Gee, Rick. I knew you had a thing for Supergirl, but I never thought you'd get a girlfriend to dress up just like her," the Hulk said with a chuckle while Rick blushed a little. Supergirl's smile widened as she heard what the green behemoth said.

"You have a thing for me, Rick? I'm so pleasantly surprised. You treated me like a child when we were in my previous universe. I liked you so much that you could have had me any time you wanted," Kara said, giving him a wry look.

"It doesn't matter what they've done now. !KIK! You still owe them for what they've done to you. !KIK!" Miek said to the Green King.

"Maybe he owes you, Miek!" Validus said pointing at the bug creature in an accusing manner. "Weren't you there earlier, setting off the bomb which destroyed the ship the Hulk came in?"

"You're accusationsssss are groundlessss," the Brood said.

"Listen, Rick. No-Name and Miek are part of the Warbound. We've been through a lot together, so there's no way either of them would set off a bomb that would destroy everyone. That bomb would have destroyed them too. I saw the explosion it made."

"But didn't they drag you out of bed just so you could see the tape of Reed Richards telling you why he sent you away?"

"They did and it pissed me off!"

"That was the whole point! They wanted you mad so you would take your anger out on the Earth. Miek's still mad because his queen got killed. The Brood's mad because some transparent creature slaughtered her people, making her the last of her species."

"I guess those comic books you read were accurate about the bomb, but I'm not blaming Miek and No-Name."

"But it's true!" Squirrel Girl interjected. "Supergirl and I heard the Brood say we'll think of something else."

"Liessss! All liessss!"

"Enough! We won't talk about it anymore. I thank you for saving the life of my wife and unborn child, but it's time for all of you to go. I won't take my vengeance out on the Earth because I have too much to do here. This is my home now. But if I ever see any of those traitors again it will be too soon! Good luck, Rick. Beware all those enemies I used to have. And more importantly watch out for the ones who stabbed me in the back. That goes for you too, Jen."

Jennifer ran over to her cousin and hugged him. "All right. I'll miss you, Bruce. And I'm so glad you're happy and have found peace now." After a teary good bye Jen let go.

"All right, big buddy," Validus said, shaking the Hulk's hand. "I'll make sure no one ever bothers you again." Rick gave a barely concealed hostile look at Hawkeye and the other Avengers for a moment.

"I hope so for their sake." The Hulk looked around for a moment then walked away with his wife in tow. "Oh! There's one more thing." The Hulk left the room and came back. "Here's a DVD copy of the tape of what happened and how Reed Richards and the others sold me out. It's all there on the tape. It's too bad I won't be able to see the look on everyone's faces when they find out what Richards and the others did to me. The whole earth owes you a lot, Rick. If it wasn't for you, I would have **definitely** come back to the earth and never stopped making them pay."

XXX

AUTHOR'S NOTES: I hope you've enjoyed this chapter. Now I'd like to thank the people who gave me reviews for the last chapter.

Redzorin, AshK, gen x, Ywen, Sir Thames


	10. Recriminations

Validus

!SOUND EFFECTS! _"THOUGHTS"_

Chapter Ten

"What was that last crack about, Rick?" Hawkeye asked as the Avengers were on their way home from the planet Sakaar in their space worthy quinjet.

"People like Ironman and the others have bothered the Hulk for too long. You heard what he said. You're not gonna have him to kick around anymore."

"Hear! Hear!" Jennifer Walters exclaimed in agreement. "Now we know exactly what happened. If Ironman and his friends still plan to deny what they've done, we'll just show everybody the tape Bruce gave us." Then the jade giantess noticed how Validus didn't look too happy. "What's the matter, Rick? Bruce's family is safe. There's nothing to worry about now."

"Don't get me wrong, Jen. I'm happy we made it there in time, but I'm still concerned about Miek and that Brood. I hope they won't try to do something to hurt Bruce just because of the bad things that have happened to them. And to top things off in the book I read Miek ended up almost killing me."

Jennifer paused for a moment. "I don't think Bruce is as unaware as he would have had everyone believe. He'll probably keep an eye on those two. I'll miss him, but I'm so glad he's finally found happiness."

"Yeah. I'm glad too. The big guy deserves it."

"He said something about other enemies, Rick. Who else is there besides the Leader?" Supergirl asked, regarding Validus with a smile.

"Oh, there's the Abomination, Zzaxx, Absorbing Man, the Maestro, the Juggernaut, the Rhino, Tyrannus, the U-Foes and more importantly, the eventual showdown with the Red Hulk."

"Red Hulk?" Jen interjected.

"I'm not sure who he is. I didn't get much of a chance to read that part of the series. But it will be a while before I have to see that guy. My more immediate concern is the Skrulls. A few months from now they're going to try to take over the Earth again, but this time they'll be able to disguise themselves as anyone they want more convincingly than before."

"They're like the Durlans, aren't they?" Supergirl asked.

"That's right, Kara. But most of them are determined to conquer the earth and even the whole universe if possible."

"So what else is new?" Hawkeye interjected as he turned on the communicator and told the Avengers at the mansion what had happened and that they were coming home.

"We can talk about it all when we get back in front of everyone. It's a long story," Rick said.

"That reminds me of something, Bullseye," Kara said, looking at Hawkeye for a moment.

"That's Hawkeye, kid. What is it?"

"I'm not a kid; I'm 23 years old! Don't you owe Rick an apology?"

"Um, well." Everyone in the interstellar quinjet regarded the archer for a moment. "Yeah. All right. I'm sorry. I was wrong. You happy now?"

"I accept the apology, Hawkeye," Validus answered triumphantly. At that moment Supergirl walked over to where Rick was sitting, sat on his lap, and put an arm around his neck.

"Now that that's settled, it's time for us to get re-acquainted. You're looking as good as ever, Rick." Kara began to put her hands through his long hair and to caress his massive chest, putting her fingertip in between his pectorals. _"God, he's still gorgeous!"_

"Um, well."

"Don't deny it. We both know we like each other. There's no need to be shy. Besides, I have a thing for green skinned guys. I'm older now, so I'm not some little girl who doesn't know her way around the bedroom if you know what I mean."

"All right," Validus said nervously. "I'm very happy to see you, but I want to get the business we have with Ironman and the others done before I think about anything else."

"OK. But you're not getting away from me this time."

_"I don't know how much of this I can take," _Quasar thought to himself as he observed the two lovers. _"It's bad enough I had a huge crush on Supergirl from when I was a teenager, but it's worse now that she's real! I still have feelings for her. What's wrong with me? Pining away for a woman who was just a fictional character only a couple days ago is just ridiculous."_

_"Rick's current string of luck has made up for all the times he's been regarded as a loser and wannabe. I'm happy for the guy," _She-Hulk thought as she regarded the loving couple. _"I wonder how long their relationship will last. If Rick gets as half as many propositions as I've gotten, he'll get more women in a week than he's gotten in his previous entire life. Heck! He looks like my kid brothe; he's almost as gorgeous as I am!"_

XXX

As soon as the space worthy quinjet arrived in its docking bay in the Avengers Mansion, most of the Avengers including many reservists were waiting for them. Even the Submariner, the Fantastic Four and the Inhuman royal family were there. Eventually everyone gathered together in the main meeting room. "All right, Rick. It's time to tell us what happened," Captain America demanded.

"Here it is, Cap." Rick then explained to everyone what had happened to him and how he knew about the Hulk being sent into space. He also told them about the possible future Registration Act and what would have happened if the Hulk's wife and unborn child had died in the explosion.

"Did you do that, Stretcho?" the Thing asked, looking at his teammate. "Did you actually send the Hulk into outer space? How could you do something like that?"

"Well."

"Why would ya do something like that? And right after the Hulk saved us all from that rogue SHIELD satellite too. What a revoltin development!"

"Reed, you should have consulted us," Sue Storm said a little upset with her husband.

"I told you how sending the Hulk into outer space was a bad idea. It was simply good fortune Validus was able to placate him," Namor said with his arms folded on his chest, giving Reed Richards and Ironman a cold hard stare.

"It's not just that. You probably shouldn't have went to the Skrull homeworld the way you did either," Rick said.

"What do you mean?" Reed Richards asked.

"After the Kree-Skrull War was over, Reed, you, Namor, Ironman, Blackbolt, Dr. Strange and Professor X of the X-Men showed up on the Skrull homeworld, warning the Skrulls not to attack Earth again. After you fought them they eventually captured you. During this time they extracted DNA, allowing them to imitate the super powers of a lot of the super heroes here to the point that either Spider-Man's danger sense or Wolverine's heightened senses wouldn't be able to ferret them out the way they might have done years ago."

"How could you have known all that?" Namor proclaimed.

"I told you I read comic books in that other universe. Just as Supergirl is a character in comic books here, we're comic book characters there," Validus answered stoically.

"That's true!" Supergirl interjected.

"I would like to examine you, Supergirl," Reed said, stretching his head over to her. "You don't look anything like Helen Slater."

"You don't look anything like Ioan Gruffudd yourself, Mister Fantastic."

"Hmm?"

"He played you in the Fantastic Four movie."

"Really? Who played me?" Ben Grimm asked.

"Michael Chiklis."

"That's the guy from dat show, the Shield. I love that show. I couldn't think of a better guy to play me."

"Let's get back to the business at hand," Rick said, going over to the DVD player which was connected to the main monitor and inserted the disk Bruce had given him before they left the planet Sakaar. Most everyone there gasped as they saw the video of Reed Richards, Ironman, and Dr. Strange with Blackbolt standing with them telling the Hulk how they were banishing him to another galaxy due to his rage after he had saved the world from the rogue SHIELD satellite.

"Why did you do that?!" She-Hulk exclaimed hotly, getting up from her chair and pounding the reinforced table in front of her in a huff.

"We had our reasons, Jen. The Hulk's rage was always a problem. He was a threat to the world," Reed replied calmly in a matter-of-fact manner.

"Was he a threat to the world when he saved it a few times, Reed? You guys banished him without so much as a trial right after he saved the world again! If not for Rick getting a heads up Bruce would have come back pissed off with you guys, and I wouldn't be able to blame him."

"I still find it hard to believe Bruce would have been able to come back here," Reed Richards said regarding both Jen and Rick.

"He would have had no problem getting back here," Amadeus Cho interjected. "The technology of the planet he's living on is a little more advanced than the Earth's. With Sakaar technology and the Hulk's power nothing would have been able to have stopped him."

"Where have you been, Amadeus?" Reed demanded, surprised. "We've been searching all over the world for you."

"That's because I didn't want you to find me. Listen. Your algorithms were off. That's why you sent the Hulk to the wrong planet. If you were going to banish the Hulk like that you should have at least gotten your numbers straight."

"You're out of line, Amadeus."

"Reed, it's true," Quasar spoke up. "The planet of Sakaar is a dangerous place. For the Hulk to have gone there and survived and become king speaks to his durability and tenacity. The idea of the Hulk bringing his whole planet here to destroy us all in a vengeful rage is quite frightening."

"You're mistaken, Quasar. My calculations weren't wrong. I did jump at the chance to send the SHIELD spacecraft to someplace safe and out of the way, so my calculations weren't as exact as I would have liked them to be, but they were still accurate."

"I was there on the planet, Reed," Hawkeye replied. "That planet was a horrible place. And Quasar, Validus and this Supergirl kept a huge bomb from destroying much of it. The explosion was huge; Quasar was barely able to contain it. The survivors would have had to have left. Where would they have gone?"

"That's inconceivable."

"How much proof do you need, Reed? Are you trying to cover up the fact you sent the Hulk away unfairly and miscalculated on top of that?" Validus interrogated.

"You're not going to change his mind, Rick," Jennifer said. "This Illuminati will never admit to being wrong. No matter what happened."

"It pains me that you all know what we've done," Dr. Strange interjected, surprising everybody there with the presence of his astral form. "But there's no point in any pretense now. We might well have been wrong when we betrayed the Hulk by sending him into another galaxy and the wrong one at that. But we can only apologize and hope the Hulk has finally found peace." Having said that, the Sorcerer Supreme's astral form vanished.

"Well, we in the Fantastic Four will take our leave now," Reed said, stretching over and taking hold of Amadeus only to find that "Amadeus" was a well-made replica that immediately ceased to function, black smoke coming out of its orifices. "A robot! How is it I wasn't able to see that before?"

"I guess you're not as smart as you thought, Stretcho," the Thing chuckled.

"This conversation isn't over, Reed," Susan Richards interjected. "When we get home you have a lot of explaining to do."

After they had left, Captain America spoke up. "Since we're looking at a lot of problems in the future, and we don't want to have to have a whole lot of Avengers in a small area, I thought it would be a good idea for us to have another branch of Avengers on the West Coast."

"That's a good idea, Cap. I should lead this group of Avengers; I've done it before and did a good enough job!" Hawkeye responded.

"If you want to join the West Coast Branch of the Avengers, Hawkeye, you can, but the group who goes to the West Coast will decide who will lead them."

"I wanna join! I wanna join!" Squirrel Girl exclaimed enthusiastically, practically jumping out of her seat.

"You've been very helpful to me on some of the missions I've been on, so I'll vouch for you, Doreen," Captain America stated.

"I live on the West Coast so I'll join the group as well," the original Human Torch offered.

"I normally go out in space, but if there are going to be a lot of problems coming to the Earth I can defend the universe from here in the Avengers," Quasar explained.

"Why don't we join this group of Avengers as well, Rick?" Supergirl said sweetly.

"I guess that would be a good idea."

"I better show up there and make sure the Avengers run smoothly," Moondragon stated, her arms folded on her chest. _"Someone like Validus is too good for this Supergirl, especially when I'm still available."_

"Well, there you have it," Hawkeye said. "I'll have no problem leading this group of Avengers."

"Before we do anything like that, we have to check Supergirl out and see if she's one of our enemies in disguise," Ironman said coldly.

"Are you planning on sending me somewhere?" Supergirl asked, eyeing the armored avenger. "If this is how you act, no wonder the populace here hate superheroes here so much!"

"You've only been here for a short time, little girl. So don't start making judgments about things you know nothing about!"

"That's Supergirl! If you want to examine me, I can go ahead and go through with it. Will a retinal scan do?"

XXX

A couple hours later, after Dr. Pym had examined her, giving Supergirl a thorough physical, he explained to everyone what he had found. "There's really nothing wrong or unto wards about Supergirl, but the good news is her DNA and eye scans match someone named Linda Lee who went missing a couple years ago. Our satellite hook ups and the search detectors we got from SHIELD tell us that Linda Lee is actually dead. Therefore we can have Supergirl here take Linda Lee's place."

"That's the same name of the secret identity I had for a period of time," Supergirl said in contemplation. "All right. Makes sense to me. But I could have done without the invading examination. You should have bought me dinner first, Goliath."

"Just call me Henry Pym. We had to be sure you were who you said you were, not someone else." Then Henry Pym turned to all the Avengers. "Supergirl here has actually come from another universe. And she does have all the powers she's reputed to have."

"Exactly how powerful is she?" Ironman asked suspiciously. "Can she actually move the earth like her cousin, Superman?"

"That was the pre-crisis Superman," Quasar interjected. "This Supergirl is the post-crisis version, so she's not so powerful."

Ironman shot Quasar a suspicious look. "You know an awful lot about this, Wendell. Is there something about you we should know?" Then Ironman turned away from him and gave Henry Pym his undivided attention. "Anyway, how powerful is this Supergirl?"

"She's nowhere near strong enough to move the earth. However, she is powerful enough to lift a little more than a hundred tons with invulnerability to match. In addition to heat vision she has other super human sensory powers."

"Does she have the same weakness to kryptonite?" Ironman asked as Supergirl frowned at him.

"She probably does, but do you know where to find any kryptonite?" Henry Pym asked as he regarded the armored avenger.

_"If Supergirl gets out of line I'll have to cook that up," _Ironman thought to himself.

"So it's settled. We're going west. Avengers assemble!" Hawkeye exclaimed as the other Avengers, joining him stood up and yelled with him.

XXX

AUTHOR'S NOTES: If you've enjoyed reading this, I hope you'll give me a review for this. Now I'd like to thank the people who gave me reviews for the last chapter.

Redzorin, Ashk, gen x, Sir Thames


	11. The Leader's Legion

Validus

!SOUND EFFECTS! _"THOUGHTS"_

Chapter Eleven

"So gracious of all of you to appear in my humble abode." The Leader and several other super villains were gathered around a large table inside of the Leader's orbiting satellite, surrounded by some of his mechanized and rubber based robots. The Leader sat at the head of the table, the master of all he surveyed.

It had taken some time for him to set this meeting up by making some promises of money and lucre to gather this assortment of villains inside his satellite for his big plan, but if his plan succeeded it would all be worth it.

"Cut the chatter, Leader. When do we create chaos and mayhem? And more importantly, when do we get paid?" Cain Marko, the Juggernaut said, cracking his powerful knuckles in such a way the sound resembled machine gunfire.

The Leader regarded the large, domed behemoth before him with a look of hardly veiled hostility, but spoke as if he had not interrupted him. "We're gathered here to take on the so called mighty West Coast Avengers."

"Is your plan so great as to be able to take on the Avengers including the likes of Thor?" said the human jet fighter, Airstrike, from within his armored suit with his arms folded over his chest.

"I could easily handle Thor if that was necessary, but it won't be. I've coordinated my plans along with those of Count Nefaria. At the right moment the Avengers will be too busy dealing with him and his new group of Masters of Evil."

"That's good. Then we'll be able to do what we need to do without any interference," the Speedfreek said with a sense of glee, thinking of all the destruction he was going to cause. He wore a silver blue suit of armor and red shades along with blades coming out of his forearms. He also sported a long mane of purple hair, cascading over the suit that gave him the ability to move at lightning fast speeds.

"Not quite. If you had been listening you would have known I said West Coast Avengers."

"The West Coast Avengers took a powder! Everybody knows that the West Coast Avengers are no more," a short gruesome, misshapen bald headed man said with a sneer, tapping the table impatiently.

"No, Gremlin. The West Coast Avengers have reformed themselves, but they are a motley crew of second raters who will be easy to beat."

"Who's in that group of Avengers?" said Janice Olivia Yanizeskl, the real name of the new super villain called the Joystick who wore a dark blue bodysuit with yellow trim and sported a couple of red sticks in her hands.

"The members of this group include Hawkeye, Moondragon, Quasar, the original Human Torch from the 1940's, Squirrel Girl, Validus and a new super heroine called Supergirl," the Leader answered.

"I heard this Validus guy is like the Hulk except better looking while being smaller and faster, but I can take him. But who is this Supergirl, some Helen Slater wannabe?" Titania replied with a sense of derision.

"It may be beyond your ability to understand this, but Supergirl is from another universe. I don't know how she ended up here but my sources tell me she's powerful as you are, Titania if not more so. Do not take her lightly. You can assume she has all the powers of Superman from the comics and television show."

"She couldn't beat me. No way!"

"Did you say Squirrel Girl?" Captain Boomerang interjected. "Those wankers must have been pretty hard up if they're letting a joke like Squirrel Girl join. That's girl's nothing but a furball, much like this pussycat over here."

"What?" Feral, the fur covered cat reddish brown cat woman hissed in the Aussie's direction, her claws out menacingly. "One more word like that and I'll cut you into ribbons!"

"So the kitten has claws. Listen here, little kitty! I'd slice you into cat nip before you could even get to me, furball!"

"Furball? Why I'll..."

"Enough! Now pay attention to my plan. It must be followed to the letter in order to succeed."

"Why should you be the one giving the orders?" Titania said, pounding the table and showing surprise when the table withstood her tirade. "I'm the most powerful one here! I should be in charge!"

"I am the Leader, therefore I am in charge."

"Big words, big head! Can you back them up?" Speedfreek said as he got up from his seat. He had intended to strike the Leader but right before he could get to him he found himself in a stasis field. Eventually, all of the villains were in a stasis field which didn't let them move.

"I know of all your powers. If necessary I can send you to outer space or in another dimension. Would you like that? You don't want to know what else I can do. Are there any more questions?"

"No. Not at all," Black Tom answered. We was just testing ye; that's all."

"The same goes for the rest of us," Speedfreek said, hating the fact he couldn't move.

"I'm not afraid of you or anyone, Leader!" Titania said still hanging in the air. "But I'm willing to let you lead; it's your satellite after all."

"Good. If there aren't any more objections, here is the plan." As the Leader gently had his stasis field put his confederates down and explained his plan to them, he thought about the real reason he had hired out these villains. _"Even though destroying these second rate Avengers would be nice, my main agenda is getting all that power back from Rick Jones! It was inconceivable that a fool like him could have defied me in such a manner. Despite the destruction of my version of the Watcher's Ultimate Machine I was able to salvage something from it. I will still be able it to use to drain the power Rick Jones has to the point of over loading the power drain defenses he seems to have. Since my makeshift machine will only work once before it self-destructs, I have one chance at this. I can't afford any screw ups this time. My henchmen will be able to keep the Avengers busy while I make my plans. Rick Jones' power will be mine!"_

XXX

"Are we going to live here, Rick?" Kara asked Validus as he and she worked on the new West Coast Avengers headquarters in Death Valley.

"Yes. But eventually, I plan on having a house around here."

"How about Hollywood or Santa Monica? We can live somewhere by the ocean."

"That sounds nice, but I was thinking about creating a spaceship that would double as a home. This way we can move whenever we wanted to."

"You know how to build a spaceship?" Kara asked as she came from behind him, putting her arms around him, kissing the back of his neck and stroking his massive chest affectionately.

"Yes. I absorbed some of Brainiac Five's intelligence, so I know how to do it. Due to my strength and knowledge, it won't take too long. As soon as I gather the equipment and material I need I'll be ready to go."

"I had no idea you were that intelligent, Rick," Squirrel Girl said after having admired the beautiful, emerald warrior. She deftly scampered towards the couple from the top of the newly created building to the ground at super speed, going so far as to run on the wall without any problem.

"I didn't get my boost in intelligence until recently due to the fact that it came along at the same time I got my other abilities," the well-muscled warrior answered. Squirrel Girl looked at Supergirl quizzically as the maid of steel made shooing motions with her hands that her new lover couldn't see.

"Something wrong with your hands, Supergirl?" the fuzzy chick asked as she zipped right in between them.

"Are you done with your chores for our new headquarters, Squirrel Girl?" Kara asked a little impatiently.

"You can call me Doreen when we're not working, Kara. Yes, I'm done. Aren't we, Monkey Joe?" Doreen asked as the squirrel on her shoulder nodded its head in approval.

"Well, you're pretty fast, Doreen. If the inside is done already, we can all go to our prospective rooms."

"The inside is about done now, Kara," Quasar said, coming outside the headquarters. "All we need to do is get all of our security clearances straightened out and we can get started."

"I'm glad to hear that, Quasar. So where are our rooms?" Kara said, snuggling up to Rick and caressing the center of his back.

"Um. Um. We haven't divvied up the rooms as of yet. But you can call me Wendell. Heh, heh," Quasar laughed nervously with his hand behind his head.

"You OK, Wendell? You seem out of sorts," Kara said, regarding the cosmic super hero with a tip of her head to her right that Wendell found extremely attractive.

"I'm fine. I'm gonna go inside and see how things are going there." Quasar ran away into the building with all haste to the surprise of Validus, Supergirl, and Squirrel Girl.

"He's been acting kind of strange lately," Squirrel Girl commented.

"The fool is in love with the wrong person," Moondragon said as she walked outside the front entrance and over to the three heroes.

"Who's he in love with?" Squirrel Girl asked, enthused at the idea of gossip.

"He's in love with Supergirl here."

"How could he be in love with me?" I just got here."

"Many men have fantasy girls they dream about while growing up that really don't exist. As far as Quasar knew you were a fictional character. It probably embarrasses him when he thinks of all the fantasies he had about you as he grew up."

"You're a mind reader, aren't you?" Supergirl asked.

"Yes. That's right. If I probe hard enough I could probably find out exactly what his fantasies are."

"Don't. Just let him have his privacy," the maid of steel answered stoically.

"That's right! Let's not play waaaay too much information!" Squirrel Girl replied as everybody there stared at her.

"All right. Hopefully, he'll get over it." _"It's strange how beautiful Rick Jones is in his emerald form. Things would be better if Supergirl were to fall in love with Wendell so I could have someone as powerful as Validus for myself. This might be difficult. I can tell from here that her will is strong. So this will take some doing."_

At that moment all of their Avengers I.D. cards went off. "All right, everybody! Our training room is ready and it's time we go through some workouts. Everybody inside!" Hawkeye barked.

As soon as everyone had entered in the building, Hawkeye had everyone go through some training sessions, some with each Avenger by him or herself, some with various pairings, and some with all of them together.

Over the course of a few days the current group of Avengers had become well acclimated with each other, making them an efficient team. Not a moment too soon as the main communication monitor went off.

**"Hello! How are you? This is the Governor of California. I called the Avengers in New York, but they're busy right now and the butler there told me to contact you."**

"Yep. We're the West Coast Avengers, Governor. What can we do for you?"

**"On the golden State Bridge Black Tom, the Juggernaut and a few other super villains are demanding a ransom of one billion dollars or they'll blow the bridge up along with the few people still left on the bridge in their cars. They've already killed a few people there including some state National Guard soldiers who have arrived to try and stop them. Most of them have surrounded the bridge waiting for my further instructions. As you probably know with all of the financial problems of the state we can't begin to afford to pay out so much money," **the governor explained.

"We're on our way, Governor. You can count on us," Hawkey answered. "You heard the governor, everybody..."

"Avengers assemble!" Squirrel Girl exclaimed with enthusiasm, interrupting Hawkeye."

"Couldn't have said that better myself," Validus answered, smiling.

XXX

As the Avengers arrived at the Golden State Bridge there were several cars occupied by the few people who hadn't managed to get away. On both sides of the bridge were reinforcements of the State National Guard watching and waiting. The first wave of the State National Guard had met defeat at the hands of this new group of super villains. Even several varying types of aircraft and armored vehicles had been decimated by the Leader's motley crew including attacks seemingly out of nowhere. The men and women of the State Guard gave a silent sigh of relief when they saw the Avengers quinjet land nearby.

"So the mighty Avengers have shown up to play. We'll be giving them something they'll never forget," Black Tom said as he pointed his shillelagh in the direction of the quinjet.

"You got that right!" Joystick joined in.

"Oh, no you don't!" Quasar put up a golden force field around the Avengers aircraft, making the offending bolts bounce off harmlessly.

"Land the quinjet right among those national guardsmen, Rick," Hawkeye ordered as the jade warrior complied.

When the quinjet had landed and the Avengers had exited their aircraft the state guardsmen cheered them on as Hawkeye lead his team towards where Black Tom and the other super villains awaited. "Try to get the civilians out of there when the fight starts!" the Avengers' archer called out to the general in charge of the state guardsmen as he took off in a mini-sky-sled.

"All right, Avenger. We'll do everything we can to aid you. Now get out there and kick some ass!"

"So the second rates Avengers have arrived. It will be a good day for our reputation when the so called West Coast Avengers go down in a blaze of glory!" Black Tom exclaimed, pointing his wooden weapon at the oncoming Avengers.

"Don't count your chickens before they hatch, Tommy," Squirrel Girl said as she sped over towards him.

"The Avengers seem to think me a weakling if they're sending a wee lass like you against me," Black Tom said as he attempted to blast the speeding girl, coming at him.

"Wee lass? I'm a whole lot better than you can possibly imagine," Doreen said as she dodged energy blasts from Black Tom's shillelagh. But little did Tom know that he was being set up.

!ZWING!POP! "Oof!" Black Tom groaned as Hawkeye's boxing glove arrow hit its mark, knocking the Irishman out.

"Good work, Squirrel Girl!" Hawkeye called out from overhead.

"That was my friend! I'll get you for that!" Juggernaut screamed as he grabbed a nearby car and threw it up at the archer who had no problem evading the large automobile.

"There's people inside that car! It's about to..."

"I got it, Hawkeye," Supergirl said as she flew up to the car at super speed, grabbed it and gently put it down, but before she could do or say anything else. !POW! "Ungh!"

"You're not so tough, you Supergirl wannabe!" Titania said, cracking her knuckles after having struck the girl of steel in the back, knocking her back several meters over the bridge and into the sky. "Come back and fight, you cowardly, little girl! So much for that Helen Slater wannabe over there. I knew she couldn't stand up to..." !ZOOM!BOOM! !POW! "Ungh!" the giant sized woman moaned in surprise at the onset of the maid of steel's powerful attack.

"Wannabe? I'm the real deal. You're acting all tough after Spider-Man kicked your ass in that Secret Wars miniseries," Kara said, standing over the stunned form of Titania.

"Miniseries? I'll show you an ass kicking!" While these two powerful women fought other battles went on.

"Hold it, Juggernaut! You've caused enough problems." Validus stood there over him, practically posing as he hovered in the air a few feet above him.

"You're that new guy who's supposed to be as strong as the Hulk. Well I defeated the Hulk in the past, so I'll defeat you just as easily."

Rick paused for a moment. "Just bring it."

"Here we go, little man!" The two titans clashed with each other trading blows that practically sent off shockwaves through the area until Validus grabbed his opponent and threw him far over the bridge in one swift motion. As soon as Juggernaut was in the air Validus leaped into him, striking him with a powerful roundhouse kick that was more designed for knockback purposes than damage thus sent Juggernaut far away into the Pacific Ocean. At the same time Airstrike came from behind the fiery flying form of the Human Torch and blasted him with explosive missiles that sent the android crashing down into the ocean under the bridge.

While Hawkeye was in a marksman duel with Boomerang, Squirrel Girl was in a fight in which she barely avoided a move by swipe from, "Speedfreek! It's about time I deal with you! Isn't that right, Monkey Joe?"

"Listen here, furball. I'm way too fast for you." But as the super-fast super villain came at her again, the fuzzy chick side stepped the attack and used a martial throw maneuver, tossing him through the bridge rafters and into the water. !SMASH!SPLASH! "Ungh!"

"I knew that schmuck was over rated. Now it's time to slice you into ribbons, chica," Feral said, brandishing her claws and showing her sharp, canine teeth in an attempt to intimidate her new sparring partner.

"Let's do it!" Doreen said with a bucked tooth smile and without any fear whatsoever.

"You are a fool not to fear me, child. I am death incarnate. Raoorr!"

!BOOM! "Oof!" Quasar moaned as he took a hit from the high flying Airstrike who attacked the cosmic super hero while he was helping evacuate the people still left on the bridge.

!VROOM! "You should be paying more attention to the battle, blondie."

"Oh, really? Prepare to be grounded!" Quasar said as he attempted to put force walls in the way of the aerial villain who seemed too fast and agile while he evaded such attempts.

'It's your turn, baldy," Joystick said as she attempted to blast Moondragon but she found she could not move or do anything.

"Wrong. It's your turn." At Moondragon's mental command Joystick struck herself with her own energy blades, knocking herself out. _"I sense another presence. Who is it?" _Before Moondragon could think on the matter further a bright light blasted her, sending her into unconsciousness.

!ZAP! "Ungh!"

_"I'm certain the bald woman was starting to figure out the fact that I was here, so I had to deal with her quickly. Now let's see how this fight turns out," _the Leader speculated from his hidden spacecraft several miles above them.

After having defeated Captain Boomerang, Hawkeye shot Airstrike with a specially designed arrow that immobilized his armor, sending him crashing to the ground. "We're half way done, Quasar! Keep it up!"

"Yeah." Quasar looked to see Supergirl finally finishing off Titania with a roundhouse kick that knocked her larger opponent out, sending her back flying over several abandoned cars. Then he turned to see the cat like super villain, Feral, making lightning fast slash attacks on Squirrel Girl that the fuzzy chick evaded. But what surprised both Quasar and Hawkeye was how when Feral tried to attack with her right, Doreen moved in with an inter-gate blocking attack using her left which nullified the slash attack, then struck the cat woman with a powerful right, stunning her. The fuzzy chick capitalized on Feral's misfortune and struck her with several well placed punch and kick combinations.

"What? There's no way a foolish little girl like you would be able to defeat me!" Feral growled as she tried to recover and regroup.

"So you want to surrender now?"

"Surrender? I have more attacks in my arsenal. Watch!" Feral moved in on Squirrel, giving everything she had into one all or nothing attack which Doreen surprisingly jumped over, did a somersault, turned around and kicked her adversary from behind in her shoulder blades with both feet, stunning her. As Feral stumbled to get up, Squirrel Girl moved in on her at super speed with a powerful left forward punch, backed up by her fast movement and momentum, knocking the cat woman out.

"Whew! That was a hard fight, eh, Monkey Joe?"

"Chirp!"

"You all did a great job of teamwork. But I have the feeling there's more to this than meets the eye," the archer Avenger said as Validus descended downward.

At that at that moment, a beam struck Validus. "Yearrgh!" Rick screamed as the green energy ripped into him, putting him into a world of pain. Then the emerald warrior went down to the ground with a thud.

**"I've waited for this moment, Rick Jones! You have power that's rightfully mine, so excuse me while I take it back!" **a voice rang out from the sky. When the Avengers looked up, they saw a giant sized hologram of the head of the Leader!

"You won't be able to drain me; you tried that before!" Rick replied still in pain.

**"I know that fool! You failed to totally destroy my Ultimate Machine. Therefore I've repaired it, so that I have one last chance to get my power back from you, and now I have it! You'll die in a few seconds, but now I have what's rightfully mine."**

Rick slumped to the ground, his skin losing its emerald hue as he lost consciousness.

"Rick!" Supergirl called out, running over to her lover with dread and concern.

XXX

AUTHOR'S NOTES: Now I'd like to thank the people who gave me reviews for the last chapter.

AshK, Radio Driver, Sir Thames, Redzorin, Ywen, hhjykj, gffnf


	12. Changes

Validus

!SOUND EFFECTS! _"THOUGHTS"_

Chapter Twelve

"Rick! Rick! Speak to me!" Supergirl said as she tried to rouse the former emerald gladiator.

**"It's all pointless! His power and life belong to me! Now I'll... Wait! What's happening to my Ultimate Machine? It's vanishing!"**

"Ha ha ha ha ha!"

"**Don't laugh at me!"**

Ha ha ha ha ha!"

**"Who's laughing? Who dares laugh at me?"**

"That would be me." Everyone turned to see a handsome young man with wavy blond hair and striking blue eyes, standing at six feet tall with a good muscular physique, wearing a green jumpsuit which was a little tight on him at the moment.

"**Who are you?" **

"Have you forgotten me already, old friend? It's me, the Gremlin."

**"Gremlin? What have you done?"**

"You miscalculated, Leader. Validus' defenses against your power drain were still effective enough to keep you from permanently draining his power from him, but despite all that, it was still possible to drain some of his power like say his emerald skin. I decided not to be as greedy as you and settle for using the little amount of power the Ultimate Machine could drain from Rick Jones and use it to cure my condition."

**"There was no need for you to steal from me and incur my wrath. I would have helped cure you the way I promised long ago."**

"You had no intention of curing me! We both know that! You've been stringing me along with that promise for years now. Well I decided enough was enough. By taking the initiative and creating the means to transfer the small amount of Rick Jones' power it was possible to drain, I was able transfer the power into myself thus giving me the appearance you see me have now, I've finally gotten my cure along with an even stronger intellect than I had before. I'm certain you would have wasted the small amount of power you could have gotten from him."

**"Wrong, fool! I would have made myself more powerful and eventually conquered the world. Once I had established myself I would have found some time to cure you of your condition, but now you've made me your enemy! Is there anything else you want to tell me before I kill you, or are you in a hurry to die the same way your father did?"**

"There is more. You've always over rated your own intelligence, Leader. And since I've turned the left over remnant of the Ultimate Machine into raw power and transferred it into myself while draining a little bit of power from Rick Jones which he will in all probability recover, I am now not only cured but I have surpassed even you, Leader!"

**"No! That is impossible! You couldn't have gotten that much power."**

"I didn't need **that much power **to be smarter than you, Sterns. Nor did I need much of the Ultimate Machine's power to be cured and altered into the handsome specimen of manhood that I am now."

"You still killed Rick!" Supergirl exclaimed, glaring at the newly made man.

"Weren't you listening, silly girl? Sterns' machine wasn't powerful enough to either permanently drain or kill him. The only permanent change is his appearance. He'll simply have to endure life without his green skin. I personally think the color green is over rated. So what if he's no longer green? He still has his strength, so quit your crying. Anyway, he looks a whole lot better with the appearance she has now. But I digress. It's now time for me to depart. I bid you adieu."

**"Not so fast, you traitor!" **!ZAP! Before the Leader's laser bolt could hit him, the former Gremlin had teleported himself away, vanishing into thin air. **"He's gone! This is your fault, Jones! This is not the end. This is not the beginning of the end. This is just the beginning. If you think what I've done to you was so bad wait until I get my revenge on you!" **With that the giant sized hologram of the Leader's head which had been looking down on them disappeared!

"Whew! I'll be all right. I just got to get up and..."

"Rick! I thought you were dead! I couldn't hear a heartbeat or pulse even with my super hearing. Are you really OK?"

"I'm all right." Then Rick Jones turned towards his reflection in a large silver truck nearby. "Gasp! What happened to my skin?"

"You got drained by the Gremlin, so he could fix his condition, but I'm glad you're all right."

"I feel a little different, like there's something missing. But I guess I'm all right. Does the change in my appearance bother you, Kara? I remember you having a thing for Brainiac Five once," Rick Jones explained.

"No, not at all. But now that you have a normal skin color you look half naked only wearing wrist bracelets and pants, even if I'm enjoying the view," Supergirl said with a smile.

"You do look rather tasty, Rick," Squirrel Girl said with her bucked teeth out, admiring the now fair skinned super hero. "Without all the green you really look like a gorgeous version of Conan the Barbarian. Your sexy body is to die for! I really envy Kara."

"Can't you two women calm yourselves down?" Moondragon said with a look of judgmental arrogance.

"You're practically drooling all over yourself, looking at him too, Moondragon," Squirrel girl said with an accusatory glare.

"That's not true!"

"It is true."

"Is not!"

"Is too!"

"There's no need to argue, girls. Besides, I'm wearing more clothes than the Thing or Sub-Mariner so what's the problem?"

"Anyway!" Hawkeye interjected. "The current problem is that we need to get all these super villains into lockup. Once that's been done, I want to put you through some more training in order to see if your power levels are the same as before, Rick."

"All right."

XXX

"Huff! This doesn't feel any heavier than it did before, Hawkeye," Rick said, hoisting up the heavy barbell which was simulation that was larger than a medium sized car while he was in the Avengers' training room as Hawkeye looked on. "But I still feel as if something is missing."

"Well, the readings aren't any different. I guess all you lost was your green skin. Come to think of it, that may be for the best."

"Why is that?"

"People won't associate you with the Hulk so much."

"I kind of liked my green skin color," Rick replied.

"Well, I suggest you get over it. But I'm surprised you're still wearing that tacky uniform."

"Yeah, that's right. I like this uniform."

"Well, you're still practically naked from the waist up, looking like a professional wrestler of some kind," Hawkeye replied. "Are you trying to give other guys an inferiority complex?"

"No."

"Come to think of it, the physique you have now puts the most impressive bodybuilder to shame," Hawkeye said matter-of-factually. "Only the Hulk has bigger muscles than you, and you don't look ugly from the neck up the way the Hulk does."

"I'm not trying to show off, but there's only so much my uniform can cover."

"Why not get another one, or does your uniform have to match the color of your hair?"

"Actually it does. What I'm wearing adapts to my powers and defenses. Other clothes would simply get in the way," the tall and powerful superhero explained.

At that point, Supergirl waltzed into the room. "Oh, about your uniform, Rick."

"What is it, Kara?"

"I've been talking with Sue Richards, the Invisible Woman. She's already sent me some material made of unstable molecules that will adapt to your defenses enough so that it won't tear so quickly in a fight."

"Really?" Rick said in surprise.

"That's right. I've already sowed up a uniform top for you that will match the pants you wear. It won't be as invulnerable as your pants are, but at least you won't have to go around topless all the time even if I like the view," Kara said with a smile regarding the muscular upper body of her beau.

"Oh, all right."

"I'll be right back." Then Supergirl left the training room with a switch of her derriere as she looked back over her shoulder.

"Well, since there's nothing else going on you can have the rest of the day off, so you can spend it with your girlfriend," Hawkeye said.

"Thanks, Hawkeye." Then Rick noticed Hawkeye still regarding him. "What is it?"

"You're really into that Supergirl chick, aren't you?"

"Yes. Why do you ask? Do you like her too?"

"No. But I think Quasar does. I think it would be better if you weren't too affectionate with each other when he's around. Having to see the girl of his dreams make eyes at you is hard enough for him as it is."

"All right, Bullseye," Supergirl answered, walking into the training room with Rick's new tunic. "It won't be easy to control myself around him but I'll take one for the team."

"That's Hawkeye! Did you hear all that? I practically whispered it."

"I have super hearing, or didn't you know that?"

"No, I didn't. I guess I should read the file on you a little more closely. Maybe you guys should go out on the town and see the sights."

"That's a great idea! Here, Rick. Put this tunic on so I can see how it looks on you," Kara said, pressing the material towards him.

"All right." Upon putting the tunic on, Rick looked downwards. "It looks pretty good, Thanks, Kara."

"You're welcome, baby." The new tunic left Rick's midriff and arms bare, covering his sides and his back. The new look made him look a little like a fantasy hero, but the uniform completed what he had been wearing for some time.

"You look great, Rick. Now that we've taken care of your superhero appearance, we can go shopping for some regular clothes. I can't always go dressed like this either," Supergirl explained, regarding her super hero attire.

"I don't know, Kara. You look pretty good dressed as you are," Rick said with a smile. "Have you changed your uniform?"

"Yes, that's right. Thanks for noticing."

"It looks nice," Rick complimented, regarding the new sky blue skirt and S insignia topped tube top that left her moderately muscular tummy and belly button bare with her cape and boots still being red.

"Oh, thanks, Rick. Flattery will get you everywhere! Come here, you."

"This is what I was talking about. You two need to cool it with the all the lovey dovey stuff unless you're alone or something like that."

"All right, Hawkeye. We'll behave. Let's go, Rick. It's time for us to take care of some unfinished business," the girl of steel said with a smile and a wink as she dragged her lover away by the arm. In a few moments Quasar walked into the training room along with Squirrel Girl.

"I hope those two won't be too loud when they make out."

"Let's not talk about that, Squirrel Girl," Hawkeye admonished.

"Why can't we talk about it? Rick is just as hot without the green skin as he was with it. In fact, he's even better looking! Even though I liked looking at him with his shirt off, he still looks great in his new outfit. I would just love to put my hands inside his tunic and feel around in there. Just thinking about his gorgeous body makes my teeth chatter. If Kara is anything like me she'll be rubbing against his hot and well-muscled body for hours."

"That's enough, Doreen. There's no need for you to..."

"I just can't stop thinking about those muscular arms and shoulders. And that chest is to die for. I want me some of that!" the fuzzy chick exclaimed, staring off into space, her buck teeth jutting out as she frothed at the mouth.

"I can't stand it anymore!" Quasar exclaimed as he ran out of the room.

"Oops. Sorry. I guess I got carried away."

"Didn't you hear what I was saying just now, Doreen?"

"No. I don't have super hearing like Supergirl. What did you say?"

"I told Rick and Kara not to be too affectionate around Wendell because I suspected that he had a crush on Supergirl ever since he was a teenager or younger," Hawkeye answered.

"That makes sense. But what does that have to do with me?"

"You going on about what Rick and Kara were going to do with each other didn't help matters much, Doreen."

"Ooh! That's what you meant. Why would Wendell fall in love with someone who didn't exist when he was a teenager?"

"It's hard to explain, but sometimes teenage boys fall in love with fantasy girls. And the problem now is that the fantasy girl happens to be real," Hawkeye explained.

"Yes. Men sometimes have no problem falling in love with a picture. It's not as uncommon as you think, little girl," Moondragon said in reply as she walked into the room with the Human Torch following her.

"That's Squirrel Girl!"

"It's a real pity that Wendell fell in love with someone like Supergirl when we don't know a whole lot about her," the bald woman said as if she hadn't heard the fuzzy chick.

"It looks like you've sunk your hooks into some hot stuff yourself, Moondragon. Hmmm?" Doreen countered, giving a knowing, sly look to the slightly blushing Human Torch.

"No. Why is your mind always on such things?"

"I don't think about things like this all the time, but when enough hunky guys traipse around without hardly any clothes on, these things occur to me," the fuzzy chick answered.

"Anyway," Moondragon said, ignoring the girl. "I came here to tell you that I was leaving. Events are happening on Titan that require my immediate attention. I have no idea how long these matters will take, so I must be needs take my leave."

Hawkeye turned towards the mentalist respectfully. "All right, Heather. I'd like to say it's been great having you." _"But I'd be lying if I did."_

Then the bald mentalist got a little closer to Hawkeye, giving him a pert glare. "I heard that." With that the noblewoman did an about face in an arrogant manner. !VROOM! "That's my transportation. It's time for me to go. When the problems are solved, I'll be back."

"She's something else," the android said as he admired the departing Titan wistfully.

"You don't want to go there, John. Trust me."

XXX

AUTHOR'S NOTES: I thought I'd let everybody know that I've rewritten this yet again. Thank you for all of your support. Be here next chapter when Supergirl and Validus go shopping. Now I'd like to thank the people who gave me reviews for the last chapter.

Radio Driver, Redzorin, AshK.


	13. Date Night

Validus AKA Rick Jones

!SOUND EFFECTS! _"THOUGHTS"_

Chapter Thirteen

Rick was sitting down reading while on monitor duty, the other Avengers away doing other things. Kara was flying, exploring the country side out of curiosity and taking in the sights at the time.

"Well, nothing's going on here."

However, Validus was quite mistaken as the alarm phone sounded. !BEEP!BEEP!BEEP! "Hello?"

"It's the Abomination! He's here in Las Vegas, Nevada!" Rick heard the voice on the other end of the line exclaim frantically.

"I'll be right there!" Rick super leaped into the sky for Las Vegas like there was no tomorrow.

In a matter of seconds Validus arrived there, seeing one of the familiar buildings on the Strip violently demolished by the Abomination. "Hold it, Stersky!"

Validus stood there impressively, balled fists on his hips as he hovered several yards above the ground. The hero regarded his new adversary, his golden brown eyes unflinching as his bare chest heaved with physical as well as mental strength.

"You! Where's the Hulk? He was rumored to be here, and I wanted to talk to him instead of some pale look alike," the creature answered, making his way to him.

"What did you want with him?" Validus asked, touching down as the creature got closer.

"Since you're here, I might as well tell you."

"Tell me what?" Validus asked.

"This!" !POW! Upon the powerful left handed punch of the scaly, green creature, Rick flew back several yards, head over heels, smashing into a well-lit casino entrance with glass flying everywhere.

"Yeow!" the powerhouse screamed as electricity coursed through his body. "Huff! So that's how you want to do it." Validus got up, still smoking from having been electrocuted. Then he took to the air, making his way towards his new opponent, smashing into him fists first right into the Abomination's midsection. Validus' attack carried him and his opponent through a couple of blocks over the street, stopping in an intersection. As the two combatants rolled on the ground, people stopped their cars or did their best to drive around them. However, an oncoming bus either couldn't keep away from them or didn't see them.

!CRASH! "Eeek!" As soon as the bus crashed into the two combatants, the driver slumped forward unconscious while most of the passengers broke through the emergency exit in the back, running away as if their lives depended on it.

"Your strength is nowhere near the Hulk's. You cannot defeat me," the scaly creature said as he attacked the golden haired Validus with powerful fists.

"I'm more than strong enough to deal with the likes of you." To the surprise of his opponent, Validus maneuvered and blocked several punches. Then he counter attacked, pretending to punch the scaly creature. However, instead using his fists to attack, Validus struck his opponent in the shins with a couple of kicks. Over the course of the fight, Rick took one hit for every four he got in. Eventually he attacked with a roundhouse kick that struck home, knocking the Abomination several blocks back.

"Coward!" the Abomination yelled out as Rick made his way to him. "Fight me like a man instead of some dancing fool!"

"I'll fight you any way I want!"

"Yeaargh!" the creature screamed and then clapped his hands together, creating a shockwave that sent his opponent a couple blocks back end over end.

As Rick went flying, the Abomination leaped into him, taking him even further than Rick had knocked him back just seconds ago. As the two crashed into a building with Rick taking the brunt of it, Abomination stood over him and began to pound him into the ground.

_"What's wrong with me? For some reason my strength isn't increasing even though I've fairly angry right now. I must have lost my berserker rage enhanced strength when I lost my green skin. But despite that, I still should have enough strength to deal with the Abomination."_ Validus used his agile legs to grasp his opponent and performed an acrobatic maneuver that allowed him to propel the Abomination across the street several blocks away while his own hands were on the ground.

"You won't defeat me so easily, Jones." The Abomination picked up an empty car and threw it at Validus, knocking the golden warrior down.

"Ungh!" Upon recovering from getting slammed by the vehicle, Rick looked up to find the Abomination looming over him.

!SMASH! The scaly creature raised his hands and pounded on Validus with both fists, shaking the ground around them.

"You are a poor substitute for the Hulk, Jones. Now, I shall put you out of your misery."

"Never!" At that point, Validus reached down deep inside for that little something extra. Starting off with shaking his fists while being repeatedly struck by the Abomination, he began to shake his whole body.

"What do you think you're doing?" the creature demanded as the blows seemed to be having no effect on the jade warrior.

"I'm making myself stronger!" Validus stood up, glared at his opponent with his eyes widened, He then blocked the last two punches with his left arm, striking back with right hand!

"Aargh!" the creature screamed as he went flying back a couple of blocks away. And before he could get his bearings, the jade warrior had leaped into him feet first right into his midsection, knocking him backwards further.

"You think I can't handle someone like you? I hate it when everybody underestimates me! Aaaaah!" As Validus screamed, the ground around them shook while the sounds of thunder seemed to be coming from everywhere, even though there were no clouds in the sky. After this increase in power, Validus struck his opponent countless times with punches and kicks while taking only a few blows in return.

"You're stronger without the rage!" the Abomination screamed, reeling backwards a few feet from the last punch he received. "You're not even that angry. But how?"

"I just figured out that I don't really need anger in order to get stronger. What I needed was adrenaline and fighting spirit."

"Then I'll just break your spirit!" The Abomination quickly grabbed the bus that had earlier crashed into them and swung it at his opponent in an arc, covering several areas with so much speed that Rick couldn't get out of the way in time, thus the scaly creature batted away the golden haired warrior, sending him right into the giant-sized, neon lit cowboy sign that pointed its thumb at himself.

"Yeeaaagh!" Rick screamed as he smashed into the moving neon sign. Upon breaking out of the electronic entanglement he was in, Validus leaped into the Abomination.

"What are you doing?" the scaly creature screamed as the fast moving, unavoidable fists of Validus slammed into him. Then Validus struck the Abomination dozens of times with punch and kick combinations.

"I'm kicking your ass! Hyaah!" Rick ended his barrage of blows with a somersault kick that sent his opponent upwards. And before the Abomination could land on the ground, the powerful warrior nailed him with several roundhouse kicks with such speed that his legs moved much like a helicopter's blades.

"Oof!" Stersky moaned as Validus struck him repeatedly. The creature tried to hit back in vain as his opponent was too skilled for him, easily moving in and out of the way of his attacks. Out of desperation, the Abomination charged him.

As his opponent came running at him, Rick grabbed him by the wrist and executed a martial arts throw maneuver that sent the monster upwards and then down to the ground. "Ungh!"

The creature got up rather quickly only to take a right hand to the jaw that rocked the monster's head to the side. Then Rick measured him, finally punching his opponent with a haymaker that sent him to the ground unconscious.

"Ungh!"

"Yeah!" Validus screamed as he raised his right hand in victory.

As soon as the smoke had cleared, a police officer walked over to the Rick. "Excuse me, Mister Superhero. What are you going to do about all this mess?"

Validus looked around, noticing the wanton destruction which included several windows having been smashed in, a few bright light signs broken, and more than a few cars crushed. "Um, well. Heh, heh."

XXX

Later the next day, Rick and Kara were in Hollywood, making their way down Hollywood Blvd, a couple blocks from Vine Street. Visiting tourists and the people who worked there admired the handsome couple who walked arm in arm in a slow but sure gait.

"Come on, Rick," Kara said.

"Do we really need to go shopping around here? The stores in Hollywood can be very expensive." Rick looked around nervously while his girlfriend enjoyed the sights.

"Of course we do! This place looks just as good as it did in my former universe. This is the best place to shop for clothes on the west coast, and I really don't want to fly all the way out to New York," the tall statuesque blond stated as she walked hand in hand with the one she loved.

"All right. But our Avengers paychecks only cover so much. And I know for a fact that Frederick's of Hollywood is very expensive," Rick replied, taking a good look at the well-dressed mannequins standing in the store's display window.

"I understand that. But I want get some nice clothes that will fit in with the Hollywood hot spots. What you're wearing is OK. But I'd really like to see you in nicer clothes." Rick wore fashionable gray slacks along with a matching jacket over a white button downed shirt. Kara wore a green, short skirt and skintight blouse that made a show of her bustline. In addition to that, she wore white, knee high boots.

"All right. I don't think this place sells guy's clothes though."

"Oh, we're going to some nice places for guy's clothes later after we're done here. I know about some great places that have clothes in your size."

"I see. Are you talking about clothes designed for professional wrestlers?" Rick asked with a knowing look.

Kara turned to her lover, giving him a quizzical look. Then she figured out what he meant. "I know you're a big guy, Rick. So we are going to some places that have clothes in your size. It's not as if you're a giant; you're only six feet, six inches tall; that's just six inches taller than me. There are plenty of clothes for you to wear that will look good on you, even if you're built bigger and better than a champion bodybuilder."

"All right," Rick answered. "I guess you have everything figured out."

"That's right. There is something that's been bothering me though."

"What's that?"

"Why are the heroes here so hated? Even as popular as the Avengers are people tend to despise them. I won't even get started at how the X-Men get treated. Where I came from being born with powers as opposed to getting them later was just a sense of timing as opposed to being regarded as a race of homo superior."

"It's complicated, Kara."

"I suppose. The only time people hated super heroes in my previous universe was when Glorious Godfrey used some kind of mind control on the masses. It's a good thing someone of his magnitude isn't here. He'd have no problem getting people here to hate super heroes."

"I actually dealt with that guy once. Dealing with the likes of him was very difficult to say the least."

"I must have missed that event. But enough about that. After we're done shopping, there's a Hamburger Hamlet around here. I'm curious to see whether or not the burgers there are as good as they were in my original universe."

"Did you like the food in the future when you were with the Legion of Super Heroes?" the golden haired warrior asked.

"The food there was OK." Then the maid of steel concentrated her eyes for a moment.

"What are you looking at, Kara?"

"Looking for movie stars."

"You find any?"

"Nope. Oh, well. Maybe next time. Oh, wait!" Kara grabbed Rick's arm and dragged him inside the nearby Frederick's of Hollywood straight into the lingerie section.

"Kara, where are..." There were several mannequins in lace bras and panties, causing Rick to blush a little.

"Don't you think I'd look good wearing this negligee, Rick?" Kara said, motioning to an especially nice ensemble of skimpy underwear. "If you're nice, maybe I'll model it for you. If you're really nice, I'll let you slowly take it off me," the blond haired girl said with a wink and a smile.

"Really?"

"Can't get that smile off of your face, can you?" Kara said with a knowing smile.

"Well," the large man said with a deep blush.

"That's OK. I'm flattered the idea of seeing me in my underwear makes you so happy. And flattery will get you everywhere," the tall, statuesque young woman said with a smile as she caressed his arm.

The muscular, young man looked into the face of the buxom blond, his eyes working his way downward. Kara was well aware of where her boyfriend's eyes were wandering, so she moved in closer.

However, as she was about to give him a passionate kiss there was a large explosion.

!BOOM!

"What was that?" a customer in the store called out.

"Let me see." Supergirl used her vision powers, searching the area. "It looks like..." !BOOM!

"Dr. Doom!" Validus exclaimed as the armored, green raiment wearing would be world beater walked into the department store.

"Yes, it is I, Dr. Doom." The monarch regarded Validus and the maid of steel as if they belonged to him.

"What do you want, Doom?"

"Watch your tone, Jones. I'm not impressed by your power. What I find interesting is how you've managed to travel to different dimensions. Even this Supergirl of yours has travelled from a fictional universe to this one."

"What does that matter to you?"

"I grow tired of standing around and talking about it here. Thus we shall talk about this elsewhere." In a flash of light, they were in his castle in Latveria, bound up within light blue energy spheres that held their arms and legs up to the stone wall of the castle.

"Whoa!" Supergirl exclaimed, taking an account of their new surroundings, trying to break free of her bonds.. "Huff! These things are unbreakable!"

"Of course they are," the monarch calmly replied.

"Is there a reason you've transported us here, Dr. Doom?" Rick enquired.

"I wanted to talk in private."

"Does this have something to do with your mother being trapped in another dimension?" Supergirl asked.

"Yes, you impetuous girl! I want to know how you traveled from another universe that really doesn't exist."

"There was a super villain called the Time Trapper who blasted me into oblivion," Supergirl replied. "However, I don't see how that information would help you."

"I'll decide what will help me and what won't," Dr. Doom stated with authority.

"I've had it with your imperious tone, Doom. And I don't have to take it anymore." Validus shook himself hard, building up his adrenaline thus his strength and power.

"Over rated fool! I know ever since you lost your green skin that you've lost some of your rage increased strength."

"Not quite, Doom. I may have lost my berserker rage enhanced strength, but all I really needed was to psych myself up, increasing my adrenaline. With all the martial arts training I've been through I can still attain my greater strength. Here, let me show you. Huff!" !SMASH!

"What? But how?" the monarch exclaimed.

"Everyone needs to quit underestimating me!" Validus screamed as he used his increased strength to break Kara out of her bounds. "I control my strength now, not mindless rage!"

"Fool! Mindless rage made your mentor, the Hulk unpredictable. The fact that you're a more self-controlled Hulk means you can be outwitted and defeated. I will keep everything that has happened here in mind. I also will not make the mistake of underestimating you again. However, for the time being, be gone!" With a wave of his hand, Doctor Doom banished the two super heroes from his kingdom and back to where he had gotten them.

"Whoa!" Kara exclaimed, almost falling to the ground, but Rick was ready and caught her.

"You got to meet Doctor Doom, the most dangerous super villain in the world," Validus said, helping the young woman to her feet so that she stood upright. "How do you feel about all that?"

"I'm all right. Even though he was very impressive, he wasn't as impressive as the Time Trapper. Now that guy was scary. Let's go, Rick."

"It's rather late. Do you still want to go shopping for clothes?"

"Mmm. Yes, but right now I'm hungry. Let's go get a bite." She giggled a little as her lover put his arms around her waist and caressed her ribs; then they walked away.

In the shadows, a giant sized figure who had been watching the events as they unfolded regarded the two heroes walking along the boulevard. _"It's a good thing I was able to throw that strand sized listening device into Rick's hair while he was fighting the Abomination. It's just too bad my doppelganger is on another planet. I thought about figuring out a way to get myself there, but from what I've learned that planet is dangerous, and the fact that Bruce is the king of that world means he'd have a whole army at his command. There's no way I could hope to defeat him. At least not yet. So I'll have to settle for dealing with his new replacement. I've killed the Rick Jones of my own reality, destroying his rebellion against me in the process. Thus I will do the same to this version."_

XXX

AUTHOR'S NOTES: Let me know what you think of this with a review. Thanks.


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